Republican MN-GOV candidate Tom Emmer has become incoherent on salaries and the minimum wage. This issue became a controversy for him last week at an event at the Eagle Street Grill in St. Paul when he claimed that servers make over $100,000 per year and should have lower wages. This statement in itself is ludicrous, but it's Emmer's history on the minimum wage and his subsequent floundering that makes him incoherent.
Because of this controversy, he's gone beyond flip-flopping. His clarifying statement confuses the situation saying he's not for lower anyone's wages while at the same time suggesting workers accept lower wages to protect their jobs. Now he wants to exempt servers tips up to $20,000.
Tom Emmer isn't a leader who has a plan. He's a back-bencher used to flinging poo and giggling at where it sticks. Now that he's under scrutiny, he's floundering.
-- cross-posted from MN Progressive Project, home of the Michele Bachmann Bizarro World --
I'll begin with the distant past ... 2005. Emmer introduced an amendment to abolish the minimum wage. This is the typically ridiculous kind of thing that fire-brand back benchers do.
Emmer repeatedly said he does not want to lower workers' wages, but (on May 2, 2005 2:15:00 into this clip ) Emmer proposed abolishing the minimum wage.
[picture removed]
Emmer withdrew the amendment after clearly stating "this would repeal the state minimum wage" sources say because Republicans told him it was not a good idea.
In 2008, Emmer clearly understood how much servers made and it wasn't $100K (h/t Flash):
In 2008, Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage to $7.75 because it didn't include the tip credit for hourly service workers. Emmer voted against that bill. In 2005, DFLers defeated a tip credit amendment.
Emmer said he supports reinstituting the credit, which he said hasn't existed in Minnesota since 1990. He quoted a 2008 Hospitality Minnesota survey of restaurant owners that said state servers make an average of $15.43 an hour in wages plus gratuities.
Emmer made it clear which side of the worker/owner divide he was on back in 2005 and in 2008. However, he hadn't jumped the shark with any statement so ludicrously and blatantly false to make him look clownish.
That moment came Tuesday of last week (7/6/2010):
(h/t Mike McIntee for the vid)
The next day, Jon Tevlin of the Star Tribune confronted the owners of the Eagle Street Grill. They confessed that Emmer got it wrong or made it up:
"I don't want people thinking we have people making $100,000 a year here, because we don't," said Kasel, who had to call his 29 employees that morning to prevent a mutiny. "No way, shape or form did I [tell Emmer] anyone made $100,000."
Team Emmer were becoming concerned. On Thursday (7/8/2010) they released a clarifying statement after Tevlin's story (and every other media outlet's) hit. It didn't help. There is no apology for telling a lie or admission that he got his facts wrong. Actually, it showed how incoherent Emmer is on this issue.
As I pointed out, Emmer says two contradictory things in this statement:
After reading Republican MN-GOV candidate Tom Emmer's non-apology over his servers make $100,000 gaffe, I think he may have actually thrown more fuel on the fire. Instead of apologizing and saying he misspoke ... it happens, we're all human after all ... he tried to explain how he doesn't want to reduce anyone's wages then three paragraphs later tells workers they should accept reduced wages and be grateful they have a job.
- When a reporter asked if I supported the concept of a tip credit, I answered yes. I want the wait staff at a restaurant to be successful and make as much as they can, and a recent study published in Applied Economics Letters shows that tip credits have essentially no negative impact on wages for tipped employees. So contrary to what some people are saying, I have no interest in "cutting wages."
Emmer would like everyone to believe that he's compassionate. That he's not an out-of-touch conservative who doesn't care what his slash-n-burn economic policies would do to Minnesotans.
His problem is that in the same press release, in the same non-apology explanation intended to calm the waters, he says the following:
- I am a strong believer that a paycheck is better than an unemployment check. Job losses and business closings aren’t good for anybody. The United Auto Workers Union learned that lesson the hard way, as our auto industry almost collapsed at least partly due to an unwillingness to negotiate wage, benefit, and work rules that would have kept the industry afloat.
Seriously? We all know what he's trying to say here. Accept lower pay and benefits to keep your minimum wage job.
I believe that Emmer does want to reduce working people's wages, but just doesn't want anyone to think that he does. That's pretty hypocritical.
To settle the matter once and for all, Team Emmer scheduled a stunt for Monday night at the Old Mexico. The restaurant is conveniently owned by a supporter and donor. Emmer's manner of settling this issue once and for all is an epic fail -- blame the media:
In a video shot by Emmer's campaign, the candidate takes orders, brings food and clears tables. It's a damage control effort by Emmer, who's blaming the media for "misreporting" something he said at a restaurant last week -- that he supports a tip credit.
Strangely, most of the media has stopped discussing Emmer's lie or gaffe of claiming servers make $100,000 or more per year. They now frame the issue in the term Emmer and the restaurant lobbyists use, tip credits. The credits are for the owners. It's a wage cut and a tip penalty for the servers.
Today, Emmer held a press conference at Old Mexico and has a new idea altogether:
Emmer's proposal would exempt the first $20,000 a server makes in tips from state taxes. He said such a move would help create jobs in the hospitality industry.
"Let's not tax their tips. Right now they're taxed on both the hourly wage they receive, plus the tips they receive," said Emmer. "Let's eliminate the tax on the tipped wages, because it's a nightmare, I think, to track anyway. More importantly -- what it does for somebody who earns $20,000 in a year, it puts another 500 bucks in their pocket."
Emmer is also proposing new tax breaks for restaurant owners.
This is not leadership. It is floundering. But please, don't stop.