Again, Minimum Wage still Too Much for Conservative free Market Candidates. Low Wages the Unspoken Party Platform.

Amazing how well the Republicans are doing when you consider they're holding up millions of jobless Americans unemployment checks, apologizing to BP for the nations worst oil disaster, unabashadly calling for the end of Social Security and Medicare, and demanding lower wages to compete in the global economy. And yet, Republicans are favored to win big time in November. Here's another "lower wages" story, from Thinkprogress:

Minnesota GOP candidate for governor Tom Emmer … proposed cutting the minimum wage for service workers who receive tips, such as bartenders and waiters. In order to justify the cut, Emmer said that some of these employees earn “over $100,000 a year,” and even make more than the people who employ them … “With the tips that they get to take home, they are some people earning over $100,000 a year. More than the very people providing the jobs and investing not only their life savings but their families’ future,” Emmer said.

Minnesota is one of few states that does not follow the federal minimum wage for tip-earners — $2.13 an hour. Instead, tip-earners make $5.25 to $7.25 an hour in addition to tips. Emmer says that hurts businesses’ bottom lines.

According to the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Services (BLS), Minnesota food and beverage service workers earned an average of $10.45 an hour in May 2010, a number that includes tips.

What a way to get the economy up and running again.