The lingering effects of the pandemic continue to drive up wages in the restaurant industry, giving new energy to state and local efforts to abolish the lower tipped minimum wage.

Pandemic-related health risks, scheduling unpredictability, and the harassment public-facing workers faced during the pandemic made the industry less attractive, which is why restaurant employers are still struggling to find workers even as wages continue to rise, economists and worker advocates say.

Federal law allows businesses to pay their workers as little as $2.13 an hour if they earn more than $30 a month in tips. But the share of hourly food service workers making less than $7 an hour—just below the full federal minimum wage of $7.25—has declined rapidly since 2016, and even further in 2022. Just 2% of hourly food service workers make less than $7 an hour so far in 2022, according to data collected by the job-search website Glassdoor.

“We do continue to see wage growth well above what we had seen prior to the pandemic, especially in front-line industries, like leisure and hospitality and transportation and warehousing,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor. “If you’re offering $2 plus tips right now, you’re gonna have a hard time finding workers.”

The labor market squeeze is refueling efforts from advocates who say that removing the lower tipped minimum wage will...

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