Darden Restaurants Inc., the company whose 28,000 workers serve at Red Lobster, Olive Garden and the upscale Capital Grille restaurants, found itself on the defensive in September, as CEO Clarence Otis tried to explain to shareholders why year after year earnings per share dropped and restaurant servers labored under a $2.13 per hour federal “tipped” minimum wage, with no paid sick leave.

From 2006 until the restaurant closed recently, The Linkery, in San Diego, didn't allow customers to tip its servers . Instead, a flat surcharge of 18% was added to every bill. The restaurant's owner, Jay Porter, made the policy for a variety of reasons and has written about the experience extensively at his blog and elsewhere.

The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009, and tomorrow, in a national day of action in more than 30 cities across the country, a broad coalition of labor, faith, civil rights, community and policy activists will call on Congress to raise the minimum wage.

Click here to sign our petition asking Congress to raise the minimum wage.

Marking the 75th anniversary of the nation’s cornerstone wage law, Vice President Joe Biden told a White House audience that included a number of minimum wage workers:

It’s time to raise the minimum wage and keep faith with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Saru Jayaraman, co-director and co-founder of  ROC-United , will appear on HBO's " Real Time with Bill Maher " tonight at 10 p.m. EDT   to discuss the importance of raising the tipped minimum wage for our country's 10 million restaurant workers. 

If you have HBO, be sure to tune in.