A town hall meeting for Tom Emmer comes to an abrupt end when an immigration activist dumps a bag of pennies on the table in front of him as a "tip". Emmer, who is the Republican endorsed candidate for Minnesota Governor has said Minnesota needs a "tip credit". He insists he did not mean wages for waiters and waiters should be cut, but no matter how you look at the proposal it does redistribute income coming into a restaurant away from the workers and to the owners.
Needless to say, waiters and waitresses are angry, and about 150 of them jammed into his town hall to confront Emmer. While the video above is visually interesting, the real meat of the story is the dramatic, contentious 45 minute meeting that preceded it. That video is after the jump
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The "tip credit" is more properly referred to as the "tip penalty". Minnesota has opted out of the Federal wage provision for years. It allows restaurant owners to pay sub-minimum wages to employees who earn more than $30 a month in tips.
$100,000 a year waiters
The controversy was ignited on July 5th when Emmer made a comment about waiters making $100,000 a year as justification for imposing a "wage cap" (as his campaign now calls it). That video was also captured by The UpTake.
In 2005, Emmer called the minimum wage "socialism" on the floor of Minnesota's house. In 2008, Republican Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed an increase in the state minimum wage because it did not contain a "tip credit".
Video by Craig Stellmacher for The UpTake