Matthew Hamilton in Capitol Confidential reports that Acting Labor Commissioner Mario Musolino said yes to a state wage board’s recommendation to raise the minumum wage for tipped workers to $7.50 per hour beginning Dec. 31. Since 2011, servers make a tipped wage of $5 per hour and other service workers make a $5.65 base wage. The restuarant lobby was not pleased. “It’s troubling that the Acting Commissioner ignored legislative precedent and the pleas of nearly 1,000 hospitality industry representatives who asked him for a moderate increase phased in over time,” state Restaurant Association President and CEO Melissa Fleischut said in a statement. “By rubberstamping an extreme, unprecedented 50 percent increase it becomes hard to believe New York is really ‘Open for Business.’” Governor Andrew Cuomo disagreed. “No one who works a full time job should be forced to live in poverty, and that is why we must also increase the State’s minimum wage, not just for tipped workers but for all hard-working New Yorkers and we must do it this year," he said in a statement. Read the full story in Capitol Confidential, a Times-Union blog.