Lawmakers want to lower waitress salaries from below minimum wage to WAY below minimum wage

TAMPA - For 26 years, Judy O'Hara has been taking orders, juggling tickets and working her tail off at Mom's Place Diner in Tampa.

News that well-heeled lawmakers in Tallahassee think she can absorb an hourly pay cut of more than two bucks an hour doesn't ring true.

"Most servers aren't driving around in a Mercedes or living in Avila. We don't make a lot of money.  Most of us are just single moms trying to make ends meet," said O'Hara.

Because restaurant servers earn tips, employers are already allowed to pay them a sub-minimum wage of  $4.65 an hour, under the assumption that tips will bring them up to the official minimum of $7.67.

But a State Senate committee this week voted to allow employers to pay just  $2.13 cents an hour while guaranteeing total compensation reaches $9.98 an hour.

Mom's Place owner Peter Berdos would welcome a break on his labor costs, which make up about a third of his expenses.   He believes his waitresses do just fine.

"A server here has four, five or six tables. In an hour, they're going to make $20 or $23. It's a lot," said Berdos.

Judy O'Hara pegs her average earnings at much less, and says her income is seasonal and unpredictable.

"It's not all the time. We get our summer in which we get slow. And we didn't get a lot of our people from up north, because they're winter wasn't that bad up there," said O'Hara.

Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery voted for the measure in committee, but now opposes it because it will be optional only for the employers, not the employees.

"If it's forced on them and they don't have any say in it, I don't think it's good for the employees and I've heard from a lot of them.

The point of this legislation is to give restaurant operators a break.  Tampa-based OSI Partners, which runs Outback, Carrabba's, Bonefish, Roy's, and other restaurants, told us they believe the flexibility of the lower wage will be good for workers and the industry. But if it passes, OSI claims they will impose the lower wage only on newly hired employees.