CBS News
Waffle House servers are getting a raise — to $3 an hour
Waffle House CEO Joe Rogers III says the restaurant chain is making its “single largest additional investment in our workforce” in its 68-year history by hiking base pay for servers to three bucks an hour.
The raises take effect this month and follow a more than year-long campaign led by a union that represents service workers in the South. The effort involved strikes and petitions calling for higher pay, safer working conditions and an end to mandatory paycheck deductions for meals.
Waffle House’s base pay — excluding tips — will increase to at least $5.25 an hour for all of the company’s 2,000 locations by June 2026, with additional increases based on seniority and shift Rogers said in a video to employees.
Many restaurants around the U.S. offer what is known as the “tipped minimum wage.” Under labor law, they can offer as little as $2.13 an hour if that amount combined with tips at least matches the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, where it has stood since 2009.
Waffle House is not changing its policy that has servers keeping their own gratuities, as it would be “crazy to go down the road of service charges instead of tips,” said Rogers, who also discarded the idea of pooling tips.
Rogers also said Waffle House will seek to offset the additional labor costs by raising its menu prices, noting that patrons at the chain’s urban locations would be among those charged more.
The company has not unveiled any actions to respond to workers’ other concerns, including safety, particularly at locations that are open 24/7 and have been known to draw disorderly patrons.
In April. a brawl at a Waffle House near Ohio State University’s campus led to a shooting that killed one man, while in February an early morning shooting at a Waffle House in Indianapolis killed one person and wounded five more.
Waggle House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Privately held Waffle House operates about 2,000 locations, including hundreds in Georgia, where the company is based.
Some states have moved to lift the pay of restaurant workers, who are more likely to live in poverty than employees in other fields. In April, for example, the minimum wage for most fast-food workers in California rose to $20 per hour, the highest base across the U.S. restaurant industry.
Prior to the California pay hike, the highest paid fast-food workers in the U.S. were in Washington State, which has a minimum wage of $16.28 per hour.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.