A group called “Save MI Tips,” made up of restaurant workers and backed by the restaurant industry, rallied in Lansing Wednesday.
The organization, whose website is registered to the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, opposes a scheduled raise in Michigan’s minimum wage for tipped workers. The Michigan Supreme Court confirmed Wednesday that the increase will go forward.
The law will require employers to pay servers the full minimum wage by 2030. Save MI Tips members claim that doing so will cost workers tips and jobs.
I asked servers at restaurants, bars and cafés in Kalamazoo what they think. Some oppose the minimum wage increase. Others support it, or say they are not sure yet how it will affect their jobs.
Raising the wage
In its decision Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court answered questions raised by state agencies by clarifying the timeline for wage increases.
Under Michigan’s current tip credit system, businesses pay tipped workers a separate, lower minimum wage. In 2024, the minimum wage for tipped workers is $3.93. In 2025, it will go up to $5.99 and continue to go up until it matches the non-tipped minimum wage by 2030.
Servers at restaurants around Kalamazoo had mixed opinions about raising the wage.
Cali Basch works at the Fourth Coast Café in Kalamazoo. She said she’s not sure what to think of the wage hike. Basch said she makes about $5 more than the minimum for tipped workers because she’s a barista.
“I only make tips off of coffee,” Basch said.
“But if you are a waitress, you make tips off of food, which is a lot more money and your wage is less. So, it's more impactful in other situations. So, I'm really not sure.”
Grace Moyer and Jaden Ubl are bartender/servers at Louie’s Trophy House in Kalamazoo. They both said they depend on tips to make a living.
“Servers are getting paid minimum wage. Like [if] they’re not going to tip, we’re losing out on money,” said Moyer.
But Ubl wasn’t convinced customers would stop tipping for good service.
“I think it could be good, it could be bad. I just don’t know. We probably won’t know until it happens,” Ubl said.
Upstairs from the Fourth Coast Café, at the Crow's Nest, Rachel Pamplin said she’s had lots of conversations with servers. She said there’s a lot of confusion about what the increase in the base pay — what Pamplin refers to as "reliable money" — will actually mean for tipped workers who can earn more money in tips.
“I just feel like if things were a little more clear, there would be a lot less worry for servers. Because even though it’s reliable money, are people going to tip the same? Are we going to have the same revenue?”
At a downtown restaurant a waiter who asked not to be named said he felt the increase is a good start.
“It would be a little nicer if servers like us could get just a little bit more.”
Tami Rousch was a server for several years at East Egg on Michigan Avenue near Western Michigan University before she bought the restaurant 18 months ago. She said business has been oddly slow lately, and she’s worried the wage hike could put them over the edge.
“I wouldn’t even be opposed to paying my servers that amount if it was feasible to do it because you have enough business to do it,” Rousch said.
“For me it’s not about, personally, about do I want to pay my server that much. It’s do I make enough money to be able to pay my servers that much.”
