comment: >
  
  Unionized restaurant employees are a thing in the twin cities. I'd still take a pay cut working for them and my hours would be way less flexible.
  Even in a union I wouldn't be making $40/h. Hell I know restaurant owners that don't even make that much. Usually in the first few years of operation at least.
context: While there is important information in food handler safety, the slow video presentation and mini-quizzes are a boring and IMO crappy way to communicate that info, along with not really leaving one with a good reference tool in case something needs to be refreshed.
  Along with that, when I moved from food service into construction, I can contrast that my company paid for me to get my OSHA30 certificate, paid for my forklift cert, and pays every year to keep my DOT exam up to date.
  It's crazy to force the food service employees to pay for these "licenses". >
  
  Tips are horrible just pay people >
  
  I make $15.50/h as base pay bartending. With tips my average shift is $40+/h. Why would I not want tips? I've been in the restaurant industry for 16 years in Mn. I've turned down every non tip "promotion" that's ever been offered to me because it would be a pay cut. Tipped employees in restaurants usually do quite well in the many restaurants I have worked both in rural Mn and the twin cities metro. Back of house(mostly non tipped employees)is where the real pay disparities are. 
  Would you rather get paid $15/h no tips or $40/h with tips? The math is pretty simple. >
  
  I think what everyone is saying its, you should be paid $40/hr guaranteed (not the min.), since that's your baseline and it's a living wage in a lot of cities. >
  
  Lol sure I'll work at a restaurant that pays me $40/h base. It's never ever going to happen. General managers don't even get paid that much now. There are plenty of non tipped restaurants in Minneapolis right now. I wouldn't work at any of them because it would be a massive pay cut. 
  The non tipped restaurants even charge a service fee that goes straight into the businesses pockets. So the employees there get paid less than a tipped employees and the owner takes more money. I'd never work at a restaurant/bar with that model. >
  
  So what I'm hearing is, the business owners are screwing over their employees so often that you want a little more control over how you get paid. Sounds like a union should be in your future. Construction work isn't run by saints and they get paid what they're due, just saying.