a proposal to boost the minimum wage for tipped workers in New Jersey has business owners fired up amid concerns the change would force them to cut jobs or close their doors the bill would phase out the tip credit for restaurant and other tipped workers in the state by 2030 requiring their employers to pay the full state minimum wage which currently sits at $15 an hour regardless of extra gratuitity from customers that would bring workers in industries like hospitality salons and bars in line with other minimum wage workers here but as Ted Goldberg reports as part of our ongoing series Under the Dome exploring the state government and its impact on the people who live here employers argue costs are already high and this is a burden they couldn't shoulder anyone who's worked as a waiter or waitress in New Jersey knows that not every restaurant pays minimum wage a state law allowing tip credits allows restaurants to pay 562 an hour for employees who earn tips but a new bill would do away with that and require the full minimum wage for all employees if you can't afford to pay your employees the minimum wage then that says something about how you're operating i don't know if there is a problem that is worth addressing restorator David Vienna says the bill is a solution in search of a problem how often do you have to actually pay the difference never according to Vienna his workers here at Lita make about $75,000 a year including tips vanna's concern is without that tip credit he won't be able to pay his employees that same wage i enjoy paying people enough money to get their kids through school and to buy a house and have a life right yeah the restaurant might survive but I will no longer be providing the life for people that I that I currently am and that's that's sad that's not what this is about this is often an industry that has lots of workers who are you know they're making low wages they need the job they might be have other uh they might be undocumented peter Chen works for New Jersey policy perspective and says what he calls wage theft is common but under reportported in the hospitality industry it is hard for you as an individual to try to calculate okay I made this dollar amount base wage of $5.62 62 cents then I take my tips that I earned and divide it by the number of hours that I worked but only the hours that I worked tipped so the time that I spent folding napkins I should be getting paid $15 others in the business industry worry the new bill could force layoffs coming from labor possibly becoming more expensive they like to go there and hear the recommendations of their weight staff as to what the best thing on the menu is what's their favorite thing to eat you wouldn't be getting this um if this bill were to pass and restaurant owners are forced to actually maybe automate their systems use AI use robots if I'm getting paid $10 more an hour and then I'm getting tips then that's going to be better for me right that the decline in tips is not going to be $10 an hour worth and that's what we see in other states seven other states have eliminated the tip credit approach along with cities like Washington DC and San Francisco vienna says there's a greater risk of restaurants closing while Chen says that risk is greatly overstated last time I checked Nevada has restaurants right washington state has restaurants and in fact in those states the percentage of uh employment in restaurants and the total restaurant sort of sector is higher than in states without the states that continue to have the sub minimum wage we're talking about a probably a 10% increase in what we'll have to pay uh everyone in the building to be in the building um and with margins that are usually about 10% to begin with for profit we're talking about businesses either closing or letting go of employees to make up the difference without layoffs Vienna says customers could be stuck paying higher prices something he hopes to avoid i avoid raising my prices at all costs like that's the last thing I ever want to do and it just creates this feeling that you're you're being ripped off or it creates a feeling that you have less buying power than you used to have and we don't want to remind people of that the bill hasn't come to a vote yet in Trenton but lawmakers had previously voted to raise the state's minimum wage to $1549 an hour a rate Vienna says will impact his bottom line in Madawan I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a private corporation funded by the American people [Music]