Minimum wage rises for tipped workers
When Ryan O’Leary wasn’t working on campaigns, he was waiting tables at Washington restaurants. Most of his revenue would come from tips, which were irregular and hard to track, he said.
“It's difficult to know if you're making more money or you're making less money, you know,” O’Leary said. “Unless somebody's tracking their wages on a weekly or monthly basis and comparing them to, like, a month -- a year ago.”
O’Leary said it was this experience that led him to propose and campaign for Initiative 82.
“I think it would be difficult to run a ballot initiative like this, having not had any experience in the industry,” O’Leary said.
Initiative 82 is a new law that says by 2027, tipped workers’ wages will increase to the standard minimum wage. As this happens, restaurants have been adapting their pay structure to accommodate the new law.
According to the Office of Tax and Revenue, employers are now also required to supplement workers’ pay if their hourly wage and their tips do not add up to minimum wage.
In 2019 alone, over $9 billion was stolen from workers who made less than $13 an hour and who were forced into arbitration agreements, according to the Economic Policy Institute. O’Leary said a huge reason he started Initiative 82 was to combat wage theft.
“You should be able to know how many hours you worked in the past week, and just multiply that by your hourly wage to know what should be on your paycheck,” O’Leary said.
According to Vote No on 82’s website, which housed the campaign against the bill, Initiative 82 would cause tipped employees to make less money and face more layoffs. The website also said that Washington restaurants would be less likely to succeed and face a high rise in prices.
No representative from Vote No on 82 responded to request for interview.
Scott Auslander is the general manager at Bread Furst, a bakery in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington. Auslander said that Bread Furst decided to get ahead of the law.
“We didn't wait to raise wages,” Auslander said. “Every employee here now makes, you know, the full minimum wage at the very least.”
Bread Furst has initiated a service charge, which is taxed onto the final cost. Auslander said he expects that service charges will be popular until a minimum wage is standardized.
“What's going to happen is you'll be able to remove the service charge, and just basically now increase prices without feeling like you'll have a terrible competitive disadvantage,” Auslander said.
Auslander said he already believed that the tipped minimum wage would be raised to the standard one eventually.
“In food service, you know, these were pretty low wage jobs,” Auslander said. “And maybe this is a way where these are finally catching up as being sort of good blue-collar jobs, as opposed to those low wage jobs.”
Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie has proposed a new bill -- Workers and Restaurants Are Priorities Act of 2023, which exempts service charges up to 22% of being taxed as a sales revenue.
McDuffie was not available for interview.
Eduarda Serafim is a solidarity worker with D.C. Jobs with Justice. She said a lot of her work has revolved around protecting Initiative 82 and working to stop the passing of the Workers and Restaurants Are Priorities Act. Serafim said that this bill would enshrine service fees in the restaurant industry, preventing workers from getting tipped.
“We want to see the will of D.C. voters play out the way it's meant to play out and, you know, messing with Initiative 82 was definitely just a no from our coalition,” Serafim said. “It's absolutely off the table.”
According to the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, this bill would make it easier for restaurants to hide the fact that they utilize service charges and would not force them to disclose the purpose of their service charge. The bill would also enable restaurants to use the service charge for things other than tipping, so long that the charge supplements workers wages.
Serafim said that this new bill defeats the purpose of Initiative 82, but that D.C. Jobs with Justice has been working with both workers and councilmembers to protect Initiative 82.
“I do feel like it's just a simple workers issue,” Serafim said. “Do you stand with workers or do you stand against workers?”
She said she hopes that Initiative 82 will ensure that tipped workers make a living wage.
“I just want workers to make sure that they can work what they need to work to make their money, to live your life and not have to sacrifice everything just to be a worker in this country,” Serafim said.
“It's difficult to know if you're making more money or you're making less money, you know,” O’Leary said. “Unless somebody's tracking their wages on a weekly or monthly basis and comparing them to, like, a month -- a year ago.”
O’Leary said it was this experience that led him to propose and campaign for Initiative 82.
“I think it would be difficult to run a ballot initiative like this, having not had any experience in the industry,” O’Leary said.
Initiative 82 is a new law that says by 2027, tipped workers’ wages will increase to the standard minimum wage. As this happens, restaurants have been adapting their pay structure to accommodate the new law.
According to the Office of Tax and Revenue, employers are now also required to supplement workers’ pay if their hourly wage and their tips do not add up to minimum wage.
In 2019 alone, over $9 billion was stolen from workers who made less than $13 an hour and who were forced into arbitration agreements, according to the Economic Policy Institute. O’Leary said a huge reason he started Initiative 82 was to combat wage theft.
“You should be able to know how many hours you worked in the past week, and just multiply that by your hourly wage to know what should be on your paycheck,” O’Leary said.
According to Vote No on 82’s website, which housed the campaign against the bill, Initiative 82 would cause tipped employees to make less money and face more layoffs. The website also said that Washington restaurants would be less likely to succeed and face a high rise in prices.
No representative from Vote No on 82 responded to request for interview.
Scott Auslander is the general manager at Bread Furst, a bakery in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington. Auslander said that Bread Furst decided to get ahead of the law.
“We didn't wait to raise wages,” Auslander said. “Every employee here now makes, you know, the full minimum wage at the very least.”
Bread Furst has initiated a service charge, which is taxed onto the final cost. Auslander said he expects that service charges will be popular until a minimum wage is standardized.
“What's going to happen is you'll be able to remove the service charge, and just basically now increase prices without feeling like you'll have a terrible competitive disadvantage,” Auslander said.
Auslander said he already believed that the tipped minimum wage would be raised to the standard one eventually.
“In food service, you know, these were pretty low wage jobs,” Auslander said. “And maybe this is a way where these are finally catching up as being sort of good blue-collar jobs, as opposed to those low wage jobs.”
Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie has proposed a new bill -- Workers and Restaurants Are Priorities Act of 2023, which exempts service charges up to 22% of being taxed as a sales revenue.
McDuffie was not available for interview.
Eduarda Serafim is a solidarity worker with D.C. Jobs with Justice. She said a lot of her work has revolved around protecting Initiative 82 and working to stop the passing of the Workers and Restaurants Are Priorities Act. Serafim said that this bill would enshrine service fees in the restaurant industry, preventing workers from getting tipped.
“We want to see the will of D.C. voters play out the way it's meant to play out and, you know, messing with Initiative 82 was definitely just a no from our coalition,” Serafim said. “It's absolutely off the table.”
According to the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, this bill would make it easier for restaurants to hide the fact that they utilize service charges and would not force them to disclose the purpose of their service charge. The bill would also enable restaurants to use the service charge for things other than tipping, so long that the charge supplements workers wages.
Serafim said that this new bill defeats the purpose of Initiative 82, but that D.C. Jobs with Justice has been working with both workers and councilmembers to protect Initiative 82.
“I do feel like it's just a simple workers issue,” Serafim said. “Do you stand with workers or do you stand against workers?”
She said she hopes that Initiative 82 will ensure that tipped workers make a living wage.
“I just want workers to make sure that they can work what they need to work to make their money, to live your life and not have to sacrifice everything just to be a worker in this country,” Serafim said.