What exactly is Tom Emmer’s position on the minimum wage? The short version is that the presumptive Republican nominee for governor of Minnesota has long opposed the minimum wage, calling it “a true from of socialism,” and has recently gotten in hot water for proposing policies that critics argue would result in lower wages — but his campaign says that scrapping the minimum wage or lowering wages is not on their agenda.
Emmer has gone into damage control mode over comments that seemed to indicate that he thought waiters were being paid too much money, and credits should be instituted for their employers to apply tips towards their wages. Since then he has scheduled a listening session with servers, and even waited tables to show his solidarity with the waiters of Minnesota. What especially got Emmer in trouble was this claim: “With the tips that they get to take home, there are some that are earning over $100,000 a year — more than the very people that are providing the jobs and investing not only their life savings but their family’s future. Something has to be done about that.”
Emmer campaign communications director Bill Walsh called TPMDC on Monday, and explained that Emmer did not commit to any solid plan for a tip credit — and does not want to lower anyone’s wages — but simply indicated that he would support the idea when he was asked about it. “Obvious, Tom Emmer does not think most servers make that much money,” said Walsh. “We’re not saying that he didn’t say people make 100,000 per year. The restaurant owner said it to Tom, and Tom repeated it in a press conference. Absolutely. All we’re saying in the Emmer Truth thing is we get it. We know that most servers don’t make $100,000 per year.”
Walsh added: “It’s an extreme example, that’s what we do in politics. You go to the extreme examples to make your point.”
Last week, Emmer indicated his support for a policy known as a “tip credit.” Minnesota is one of seven states that do not permit employers to pay less than the standard minimum wage to tipped workers. Federal law permits tipped workers’ wages to be as low as $2.13 per hour, absent state regulation to the contrary, with tips given to workers credited against the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour employers are required to pay. Depending on implementation, a tip credit could lower the basic wage to anywhere between $2.13 and $7.25, plus tips.
Walsh explained that tip credits have often been proposed as part of packages to raise the state’s minimum wage as a whole — that is, tipped employees would be kept at the current rates through a tip credit, while non-tipped employees would see their minimum wage go up.
If Emmer does not want to lower wages, we asked, then what his statement that some servers were making more than their employers, and that “Something has to be done about that”?
“Something has to be done’ in the future,” said Walsh. “Tip credit is always argued in the context of raising the minimum wage. What he’s saying is if they’re going to raise the minimum wage, we ought to institute a tip credit going forward.”
Would Emmer support raising the minimum wage, we asked, under those conditions? The answer is no. “I would say that he would not be supportive of raising the minimum wage, he has voted against that in the past in the legislature,” said Walsh.
I then asked Walsh about how in 2005, during a debate on a Democratic proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage, Emmer had opposed it and said: “This is a true form of socialism.” (From the Duluth News Tribune, via Nexis.) Does Emmer genuinely believe that the minimum wage is on its face “a true form of socialism?” “Sure. He said that on the floor of the House, absolutely,” said Walsh. “He doesn’t back away from things he said.”
After our conversation, it came to my attention that Emmer had gone even further than that, during those 2005 debates. As Twin Cities Public Television points out, Emmer had in fact introduced an amendment to abolish the state’s minimum wage laws entirely. I have tried to further contact Walsh for comment, but he has not returned my calls.
However the local CBS station did report: “A spokesman for Emmer said that simply because he made the proposal to abolish the minimum wage in the legislature does not mean he would propose it if he is elected governor.”
