What is the minimum wage for servers/waiters in Washington State?

Is it legal for the owner to keep all tips and pay us less than minimum wage?

• I live and work in Washington state where the minimum wage is $9.04 per hour. The owner pays us less than minimum wage and claims that our "bonuses" put us above minimum wage, so he does not have to pay us more. The problem is that we don't always earn the bonuses. We are all part time and have to work a minimum of 30 hours per week to earn the bonus. That only happens once in a while, so most of the time we only make $8.00 per hour. The owner also keeps all of the tips we receive, claiming that he uses those to pay the bonuses. Is any part of that legal? Can he pay us less than minimum wage as long as the bonus would put us above, even if we rarely earn the bonus? Is it legal for him to keep the tips or use it to pay the bonus? If not, what can I do about it?

• Answer:

  what this employer is doing is NOT legal print this information http://www.lni.wa.gov/WorkplaceRights/Wages/Minimum/default.asp politely present this to your employer and if this is NOT immediately corrected contact the state using this link http://www.lni.wa.gov/WorkplaceRights/ComplainDiscrim/WRComplaint/default.asp