It's also a joke, because anyone who's worked a service job knows there is no tax on cash tips (wink!)
“No tax on tips” is an industry plant
41–50 of 618 posts
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#42How about the tips that I get as a musician?
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#43Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://jacobin.com/2025/07/restaurant-industry-tipped-submi... https://jacobin.com/2020/10/tipped-restaurant-workers-waiter... https://cepr.net/publications/customer-tips-are-providing-th...
I live in California and this isn't true here. All restaurant workers receive at least minimum wage before tips. In my city, that's $19/hour with health insurance. Of course, you're still expected to leave a tip and suggested minimum is now 20%, plus even McDonalds is charging $15 for a 4 oz burger, so I rarely go out to eat at places that expect a tip anymore. I'm not sure why they specifically should be tax exempt…
> I live in California and this isn't true here
I made a longer comment in the main thread[0] because I think there's a tendency for conversations about tipping to degrade as people are making different assumptions based on the different laws of where they're from or grew up.To be clear:
- Any worker that is not making *at least the state's minimum wage* (including tips) is suffering from wage theft. (with the exception of Georgia (WTF))
- Any worker not receiving a positive valued check are suffering from wage theft
- Tips only count as a credit and no state lets tips act as a 100% credit to the wage[1]. Credits may be amortized across "workweek" pay.
We always need to make sure we distinguish a conversation about wage theft and a conversation about tipping. I think they are unknowingly being used interchangeably (or as an assumption in a conversation)[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44751537 (sources linked here)
[1] Federal only lets max credit of 70% of min wage. Some states go up to ~75% of min wage, but their minimum wage is higher than federal.
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in California and this isn't true here. All restaurant workers receive at least minimum wage before tips. In my city, that's $19/hour with health insurance. Of course, you're still expected to leave a tip and suggested minimum is now 20%, plus even McDonalds is charging $15 for a 4 oz burger, so I rarely go out to eat at places that expect a tip anymore. I'm not sure why they specifically should be tax exempt…
Yeah, there is a lot of shadiness going on these days. I don't think tips should be requested in any sort of transaction where the employee gets paid more than minimum wage. Restaurants always had this weird system where you could avoid paying your employees if they were tipped, so it was drilled into everyone's head "you're stealing from poor innocent workers if you don't tip 20%". But this is not the case for most…
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#46"No tax of tips" is one of the most brilliant political ploys ever. You really gotta give Trump credit. It doesn't really cost anything, businesses love it, and you can trot it out as a victory for the working class while you screw them on their health care or energy costs.
People just don't recognize it because right-wing populism is a different breed than left-wing populism (the only one they have had exposure to).
Tariffs are a populist move as well. If you go look at Bernie's old website (pre-trump) he has a whole section about the importance of tariffs.
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#47All bonuses soon to be labelled as tips.
At least the current version of the code has a ton of limits on what can be labeled tips, and the benefit phases out completely around $150k, and is only applicable to professional that traditionally receive a significant portion of income from tips - so it's not like you're going to have billionaires and PE fund managers paying themselves from their companies tens of millions in bonuses labeled as "Tips" and not pay…
Do they have a list of professions and industries eligible or are they going with weak “traditionally tipped “ language?
And we expect the DOGEd and defanged IRS to vigorously enforce?
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in California and this isn't true here. All restaurant workers receive at least minimum wage before tips. In my city, that's $19/hour with health insurance. Of course, you're still expected to leave a tip and suggested minimum is now 20%, plus even McDonalds is charging $15 for a 4 oz burger, so I rarely go out to eat at places that expect a tip anymore. I'm not sure why they specifically should be tax exempt…
California doesn't have a special minimum wage for tipped professions? When I was waiting tables a long time ago I think my pay was $1.95 an hour. It was usually just enough to cover tax on tips (the ones we admitted).
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://jacobin.com/2025/07/restaurant-industry-tipped-submi... https://jacobin.com/2020/10/tipped-restaurant-workers-waiter... https://cepr.net/publications/customer-tips-are-providing-th...
I live in California and this isn't true here. All restaurant workers receive at least minimum wage before tips. In my city, that's $19/hour with health insurance. Of course, you're still expected to leave a tip and suggested minimum is now 20%, plus even McDonalds is charging $15 for a 4 oz burger, so I rarely go out to eat at places that expect a tip anymore. I'm not sure why they specifically should be tax exempt…
Jeez, where is this? According to the famous McCheapest map the most expensive Big Mac in America is about 8 bucks. Have prices really shot up that much recently?
Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in California and this isn't true here. All restaurant workers receive at least minimum wage before tips. In my city, that's $19/hour with health insurance. Of course, you're still expected to leave a tip and suggested minimum is now 20%, plus even McDonalds is charging $15 for a 4 oz burger, so I rarely go out to eat at places that expect a tip anymore. I'm not sure why they specifically should be tax exempt…
Seven states do not have a separate, lower minimum wage for tipped employees. Instead, they require employers to pay tipped employees the full state minimum wage, regardless of tips received. These states are Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Sixteen states use the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13: Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska,…
> Seven states do not have a separate, lower minimum wage for tipped employees
All workers, in every state, must be paid at least minimum wage.There's a subtle but important difference in wording. There is no "lower minimum wage" for any employee anywhere. The rule is that employers may credit tips towards pay, up to a certain amount. And they can never credit 100% of pay.
So tipped employees should always earn: minimum_wage + stochastic_number
"lower minimum wage for tipped employees" is incorrect and is just the interpretation of "minimum employer must pay after applying tip credits". Subtle, but very different things! If you aren't earning at least minimum wage (tips inclusive), then your experiencing wage theft.
The DOL page[0] specifically says "Maximum Tip Credit Against Minimum Wage" and that's how the column "Minimum Cash Wage" is calculated, but under no circumstances[1] can the employer pay less than "Minimum Cash Wage". Anything less is illegal. ALSO under no circumstances[1] may an employee earn less than minimum wage.
[0] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped
[1] We're ignoring allowed deductions like lodging and meal