Should an employer be able to deduct tips against the employee's minimum wage?

[Michaelf7777777]

I certianly do not think that employers should be allowedto deduct 'expected tips' as imo tips should only be given for exceptional service if the customer wants to (rather than being guilt tripped or having it automatically added to the bill, no matter how poor the service actually is). Besides even if the US tipping culture continues then seeing as the US minimum wage is abysmal (once converted its approximately a third or a quarter of the NZ minimum wage as far as I know) then it actually isn't a big deal. Also the federal government should stop taxing on expected tips and come up with a system to work out the exact amount of tips earned and then tax that amount as they would any other source of income.

[Michaelf7777777]

I thought from memory that the US minimum wage was about $2.50 US with the exchange rate at I think around about 60 cents to the NZ dollar with the NZ minimum wage around about $13.50NZ (indeed many political groups and parties are calling for a $15 mimimum wage, I remember seeing the Workers Party and the Unite Group organising a petition around campus for this a couple of years back and became an official policy of the Mana party led by controversial far left MP Hone Hawerira possibly in an attempt to win more non-Maori Party votes and thus get an extra seat or two for his party in parliament under our MMP system) which from my very rough calculations in my head gave a minimum wage rate about 3 or 4 times that of the US although my calculations could be way out.