With a statewide campaign to support a raise in servers' federal minimum wage from its present $2.13 per hour to $5.50 per hour by July 2012 kicking off this month, local restaurant owners say an increase in wages for servers could lead to higher prices or longer waits in restaurants.

“The margins in the restaurant business are razor thin,” said Gary Duke, owner of Sunnyside Cafe on Rome Street in Carrollton. “We’re all struggling to survive.”

Any additional cost affects the bottom line and when that cost is the second biggest expense in the average restaurant, that’s going to impact either service or the prices people pay. Duke pays all of his staff including his servers higher than minimum wage because he wants to attract the best staff in the area, but the servers aren’t reliant on what he pays them. They’re working for the tips.

“Most of their pay is generated from tips, restaurant tips,” Duke said. “It’s kind of a kill what you eat thing. They don’t share tips. They get what the customers give them and it’s based on their performance.”

That’s one reason the minimum wage is so low for servers, the restaurant owners say. The servers can average much higher than the minimum wage through tips alone. The paycheck from the restaurant often just covers taxes. That’s a good thing they say. When the servers are working for tips, the customers get better service.

At Plates on the Square in Carrollton, the best servers can earn more than the managers, said Brad Wilks, co-owner of the restaurant.

“There’s a reason why they work for their tips,” said Wes Denney, head chef and Wilks’ partner in the restaurant. “They make good money doing so and they come into this business as a waitress or bartender knowing that.”

In addition, the restaurants are required to make up the difference if a server’s tips and wage do not reach the regular minimum wage, Wilks said. That means that the server never averages less than hourly employees.

However, that has been difficult to enforce, said Cindia Cameron, co-chair of Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition, an organization that lobbies on behalf of the working poor. Many servers don’t even know that law exists, she said.

The minimum wage for servers has been the same since 1991, and even then it was lower than the minimum wage for other workers. Since then, the federal minimum wage for other workers has been raised twice while the servers’ wage has stagnated. With inflation, the servers’ minimum wage of $2.13 an hour has lost more than 30 percent of its value in the past 19 years, Cameron said.

“One indicator of the problem is that the poverty rate for tipped workers is three times higher than the poverty rate for the work force as a whole,” Cameron said. “So workers in Georgia who depend on their tipped work often see no wage from their employer directly because that $2.13 an hour goes directly to the government for (taxes).”

There is federal legislation winding its way through Congress that would increase the wage to $3.95 an hour 90 days after approval, then $5 by July 2011 and $5.50 by July 2012. The Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition is supporting the legislation as a way to improve the lives of tipped workers.

However, with employees paid with tips, they usually receive a percentage of the bill. As restaurant prices have risen over the years, so have the size of the tips, said Scottie Kaylor, owner of Miller’s Restaurant and Empire Grill on the Adamson Square.

It may be time to raise the wage some, agree restaurant owners, but if it goes up too much, it could mean layoffs or higher prices.

The tough economy has already forced Kaylor to lay off employees and a big hike in the minimum wage could force him to do more trimming, he said. Chris Duffey, owner of the Corner Cafe agreed.

“If it was a small increase, you know that would be fine,” Duffey said. “If it’s a big increase then obviously it ends with not being able to have as many waiters and waitresses.”

In France, for instance, the waiters and waitresses earn a good hourly wage, but there are fewer servers and people have to wait much longer for their food, he said. In his restaurant, he generally has three servers for the lunchtime crowd and in France the same size restaurant would only have one or two. It’s just not affordable there to have more, he said.

Customers could also see higher prices in their favorite restaurants as a consequence of a large wage hike.

“If you start paying servers minimum wage, in other words like $7.25 an hour, then it would instantly drive up the (prices),” Kaylor said.

It could end up costing the servers money if employers compensated by raising prices and told customers the gratuity was included.

The Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition also has sponsored a Fair Eats campaign that includes a rating system for restaurants based on what they pay their servers. Those that pay their servers more than $3 an hour receive the highest rating of three hearts.

For more information about the campaign, visit 9to5.org.