Here’s A Tip – Minimum Wage

What to Know: The District of Columbia has scrapped its minimum wage law for tipped workers.

“When D.C. voters approved Initiative 77 in June, they thought they were giving the city’s bartenders and restaurant workers a boost in the bank account,” Reason magazine reports. “But many of those workers didn’t want the law, which they didn’t think would work as advertised. Today the city council answered those employees’ appeals and voted 8–5 to consign Initiative 77 to the trash pile of bad policy. Though it was served up as a progressive plan to hike wages, Initiative 77 would have actually cost many workers money. The proposal abolished the so-called ‘tipped minimum wage’ of $3.50 cents per hour, replacing it with a $15 minimum wage for all food service workers in the city. But workers that I (and other reporters) talked to before the vote told me that they often make far more than $15 an hour, thanks to tips.”

The TPPF Take: The council listened to those who were most affected – the tipped staff themselves.

“The reason they opposed this minimum wage hike is that they would much rather be paid based on what customers decide than what the government says their job is worth,” says TPPF’s Vance Ginn. “Good wait staff and bartenders can make far more than the minimum by working harder and being more attentive. They would much rather be paid what their customers say they are worth than what the government says they’re worth.”

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