District of Columbia voters’ approval to end the subminimum wage for tipped employees highlights the momentum that worker advocates say could help them spread similar wage-law changes across the US even as the restaurant industry pushes back.
D.C.’s Initiative 82 passed on Election Day with 74% of the vote—a notable jump in support from the 55% approval that a similar ballot measure received in 2018 before the D.C. Council repealed it. No such repeal is expected this time around, and the new law will gradually phase out the tip credit and require businesses to pay tipped workers the full minimum wage plus tips starting in 2027.
Despite a decades-long fight over the issue, the D.C. vote is one of few wins for the tip credit’s opponents in recent years. Michigan is another, where the tip credit is tentatively set to end next year alongside a court-ordered increase in the minimum wage, pending the outcome of litigation over those measures.
But advocates such as Saru Jayaraman of One Fair Wage say the pandemic and the tough labor market that followed have changed their prospects for ending the two-tier minimum wage system for tipped workers. She’s targeting 25 states—including Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York—to enact legislation by 2026.
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