A circuit judge says employees who receive tips should have been given raises when the state’s minimum wage went up earlier this year.
Backers of the minimum wage law, approved last year by voters, had argued that employees who receive tips are entitled to a base pay of at least half of the minimum wage – or $3.25 an hour. And, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce agrees.
The challenge to the increase was filed by several restaurants after Governor Matt Blunt countermanded a State Labor Department holding that the employees should get only the federal minimum of $2.13 an hour. Blunt ordered the department to tell employers they had to pay $3.25.
An attorney for the restaurants expects to appeal the ruling.
