About five years ago, right after she had her third child, Lowell resident Cindi Hevner took a new job that would allow her to earn money and still have time for her children - she became a server at a Ninety Nine Restaurant.
Within the past year and a half, Hevner said her job leaves her with less and less money every night. A sinking economy means fewer customers. To lure people, the restaurant offered a slew of coupons and deals, which lowered check prices and tips.
On good nights, Hevner said she can still make $135 in tips, but slow nights leave her with $40. Combine that with the tip out she has to pay to the dishwasher and the taxes she pays on her tips, Hevner said she has increasingly relied on her wage, a state minimum $2.63 an hour.
But she has little hope restaurants will willingly raise server wages.
"They're going to do the minimum of what they have to do," Hevner said.
With many waiters and waitresses facing a more modest payday, Hevner sought the help of state Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, asking him to file a bill on her behalf that would increase the minimum wage for service employees by $1 an hour.
At least one Waltham restaurateur is sympathetic to Hevner's idea.
Carlos Reverendo, co-owner or Solea Restaurant on Moody Street, says that for about half of his 48 employees, "tips are the basis of the majority of what they earn."
Reverendo said he considers a minimum wage increase inevitable and said that such an increase might better motivate employees and decrease turnover.
"If you want to get better people, you have to motivate them," Reverendo said.
The bill would immediately increase the server minimum wage to $3.63 an hour and then would increase the wage by the same percent as any subsequent raise in minimum wage. The national minimum wage benchmark for a tipped employee is $2.12 an hour.
Massachusetts last raised the minimum wage for tipped employees about 20 years ago, Hevner said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food and drinking establishments employ about 227,000 people in Massachusetts.
Nationwide, the average wait staff makes about $7.14 an hour and the average bartender makes about $7.86 an hour.
Hevner testified before the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development yesterday, presenting a petition in favor of her bill signed by 75 people.
She said she is cautious about the bill's prospects but argues that a minimum wage increase is "20 years coming."
"I got to think about myself and my family," Hevner said.
