Voters in Washington, D.C., have approved a measure that will gradually increase the minimum wage that tipped workers receive.
Initiative 82 significantly raises the baseline minimum wage for tipped workers. Employers are currently allowed to pay tipped workers — for example, servers and bartenders — below minimum wage to a floor of some $5 per hour if those workers’ hourly wage plus tips clocks in above the district’s regular minimum wage of $16.10. If their hourly income with tips falls below that, restaurant owners are already required to make up that difference.
With its passage, employers will be required to pay $16.10 base wages per hour to tipped employees by 2027, which is the minimum wage for non-tipped employees. With over 40% of the votes counted, the initiative leads with 75% approval.
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More than $400,000 was raised in an effort to get Initiative 82 passed and more than $600,000 raised to fight the provision, according to the Washington Post.
Proponents of the measure argued that tipped workers don’t always actually earn enough in tips to make up the gap between base pay and minimum wage, and that, given the cost of living in the District, an increase in wages is only fair.
“I just want to make sure that workers have a safety net of a fair base wage before tips,” said Ryan O’Leary, a former server in the District who proposed the ballot measure.
Opponents contend that raising the cost burden for restaurant and bar owners would make those businesses more difficult to operate. Those businesses might also have to add service fees in order to make up for the losses, meaning that servers could end up earning less in tips. Inflation has also further complicated the food and dining industry.
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“Advocates don’t understand the finances of restaurants,” restaurant owner Geoff Tracy told the Washington Post. “They also think that there’s a bucket of money with no bottom. And that’s not the case.”
Sean Kennedy, executive vice president for Public Policy at the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement following the election that the initiative’s passage is a loss for both restaurant owners and tipped restaurant workers.
“Voters in D.C. have been misled into supporting a pay cut for the tipped restaurant workers, and many restaurant owners will have to make drastic changes that will not work as proponents promised,” he said. “In D.C. this means some operators will reduce their workforce, some will raise menu prices or add surcharges, and others will reduce shifts for their staff.”
The initiative might end up encountering legal obstacles, too. In 2018, voters approved a similar proposal, although it was ultimately overturned by the City Council.
