By Doug Belden

St. Paul Pioneer Press

ST. PAUL — State Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, has scheduled a hearing Monday on a bill he’s sponsoring that would factor tips into calculation of the state’s minimum wage.

Garofalo, chair of the Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance Committee, would allow employers to pay $8 per hour to workers who earn at least $12 an hour in wages and tips.

Workers whose pay and tips don’t exceed $12 an hour would be paid the standard minimum wage rate.

The Legislature last session raised the minimum wage such that large employers were required to pay at least $8 per hour as of Aug. 1 and must pay $9 per hour as of Aug. 1, 2015, and $9.50 per hour as of Aug. 1, 2016.

Restaurant owners complained that servers could make well above the minimum through tips and that some recognition of tip income should be included in the law.

The move faces opposition.

Gov. Mark Dayton, a DFLer, has said he does not support changing the law to recognize tips.

And the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-controlled Senate that passed the minimum-wage bill last spring by a 35-31 vote still is in place.

Separately Thursday, House and Senate DFLers unveiled what they called a “Working Parents Act” that included a provision preventing restaurants from deducting credit and debit card transaction fees from servers’ tips.

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