Because federal law (not California law) allows employers to take a “credit” towards paying minimum wages for workers receiving customer tips, 17 states require the payment of only $2.13 per hour to tipped employees working in those states. Yes, tipped employees are legally paid only $2.13 per hour, when the employer insists those workers are receiving another $5.12 per hour in customer tips.

In this day and age, when we are discussing raising the minimum wage to $10, $11, or even $15 per hour or more, it is still shocking the following states permit a minimum wage of $2.13 per hour for their tipped workers: Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
Review the list at: U.S. Department of Labor

For amusement, I reviewed the 2012 election results to determine how many of the 17 states had voted for the Republican Presidential candidate. Only 3 states had voted for the Democratic candidate: New Jersey, New Mexico, and Virginia. The remaining 14 states (82%) voted for the Republican Presidential candidate.