Originally Posted by Rainger99 (Post 2444025)

So which are the deserving category of workers that should get a tax break and which are the ones that don’t deserve the tax break?

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580 (Post 2444024)

No surprise here. My focus is not on the waitstaff. It's the customer position.
The customer pays a price, part of which goes to cover employee pay. So, waiter gets a cut. Tax is added. The comes the tip. Now the wait person has an opportunity to dramatically increase their "cut" through sweet talking, cajoling, persuasion, etc. Pitty the poor server. A good actor can make a lot more than a bad actor. If it wasn't for tipping, restaurants would be paying more tax. Servers would be tax liable for all their income. Customers wouldn't have to figure the appropriate cost of being called "Hon". He/she ain't your friend. It's about getting the biggest present they can from you. It's a con, a game, a scam, that we all play. But it isn't an honest hourly wage for labor. Restaurant owners are complicit in this for their own reasons.
Tonight's nice dinner out and the waitress pocketed $20+, on top of her regular pay, for the 10 minutes that she spent on us.

Originally Posted by Rainger99 (Post 2444011)

I was a salaried worker. I never negotiated the terms of my employment and to my knowledge, no one at my level did. I think senior vice presidents and above did that.

And I worked overtime most weeks - I just didn’t get paid for it.

Originally Posted by Bill14564 (Post 2444041)

That decision was political.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2444046)

Under the working conditions I described? Our children are salaried too but if they aren't salaried enough for their efforts, they would change jobs and do just fine.

Originally Posted by Rainger99 (Post 2444050)

You say that if your children aren’t salaried enough for their efforts they would change jobs and do just fine.

Doesn’t that same rationale apply to the person working in a factory which runs about 100 degrees on a summer day, lifting product, running presses?

And to answer your question, my working conditions were not that bad. But I don't think the tax benefits for overtime are limited to workers with those conditions.

Many government employees get overtime. This includes transit workers, the post office, TSA, VA, CPB, and FEMA. Most of those jobs are hard to get. And the people that I know that work in those areas usually want overtime.

Originally Posted by stratmax (Post 2437006)

Have you noticed the food prices in restaurants have gone up dramatically. I'm not sure everybody knows this but last fall, 2024. Florida enacted a law mandating restaurants pay a base wage of $9.98 to their wait staff and a guarantee of $13/hour when combined with the tips.The law gave restaurants time to change their menu prices so they could pay the base wage.
So, why are we continuing to pay 20% tip when there is already a built in tip in the menu prices?
NOTE: the base wage is also going to go up to $10.98 this fall

Originally Posted by Rainger99 (Post 2444050)

You say that if your children aren’t salaried enough for their efforts they would change jobs and do just fine.

Doesn’t that same rationale apply to the person working in a factory which runs about 100 degrees on a summer day, lifting product, running presses?

And to answer your question, my working conditions were not that bad. But I don't think the tax benefits for overtime are limited to workers with those conditions.

Many government employees get overtime. This includes transit workers, the post office, TSA, VA, CPB, and FEMA. Most of those jobs are hard to get. And the people that I know that work in those areas usually want overtime.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2444045)

Eat at home, problem solved.

Originally Posted by retiredguy123 (Post 2444058)

I handled several cases of this, and the department head was sometimes surprised that they could only require their top managers to work 40 hours per week. This is a huge difference from the private sector.

Originally Posted by Bill14564 (Post 2444035)

You can spend a lot of space working math problems but that doesn’t change the fact that this deduction, only available to some tipped workers, will exempt the first $25,000 in tips from federal income tax.

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby (Post 2444175)

It isn't "no tax on tips." It's "deduction on SOME tips." Words have meanings.

Originally Posted by Rainger99 (Post 2437197)

Is every job supposed to have a living wage?

Including part time and starting jobs?

Or are some jobs not meant to be careers?

Originally Posted by Rainger99 (Post 2444049)

I think every bill passed by congress is political.

But if you could make the decision, which group of workers should get the tax break? Explain how you reached your conclusion.