Jessica Jankovic, a server at Courtside Grille, says the proposal to trim the minimum wage for tipped employees from $4.65 per hour to $2.13 an hour would be devastating.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- How does a 50 percent pay cut sound?
It would happen to servers and bartenders around the state of Florida under a bill filed in the legislature on Wednesday.
The idea has employees upset, but restaurant owners say it's needed to survive.
Jessica Jankovic, a server at Courtside Grille, says the proposal to trim the minimum wage for tipped employees from $4.65 per hour to $2.13 an hour would be devastating.
"We're already stretching paycheck to paycheck," Jankovic said. "It pays for 100 percent of my college. Without this job, without the money I make, I wouldn't be able to graduate."
Servers often make far more than the minimum wage in tips. But Frank Dolsak, a bartender on St. Pete Beach, points out when the sun disappears, so do the tips.
"When we don't have any business, we depend on those hours," he explained.
Keith Overton, president of the Tradewinds Resort and board member for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, says the money they're paying tipped employees is money they can't pay kitchen staff and other non-tipped workers.
"It really puts pressure on us," he said. "We're confident that all of our tipped employees are making well above minimum wage year-round on a consistent basis."
Nearly all of the restaurant association's 10,000 members are behind the proposal, according to Overton. One of their arguments is food costs are crushing businesses. For instance, the Tradewinds has increased menu prices by 8 percent in the last year. Overton says that equates to a pay raise for servers and bartenders, but lawmakers don't always see it that way.
"When they intervene, they are actually decreasing job creation, instead of increasing it. They think they're helping, but they're not," he said.
Servers, though, argue in a down economy fewer people eat out, putting less money in their pockets.
"I think it's the worst possible timing," Jankovic said.
While the Senate bill was filed Wednesday, so far no hearings on it have been scheduled.