SOME East Coast diners are facing additional charges to their dining experiences as a new minimum wage law passes in their area.
Washington, D.C.'s city council passed Initiative 82 that increased tip-eligible employees' minimum wage to the same as non-tipped wage workers by 2027.
Prior to the law, the tipped employee minimum wage was $5.05 per hour, with the normal non-tipped D.C. minimum wage at $15.20 per hour.
This change will be gradual, increasing the minimum wage incrementally, with it currently being at $6.00 as of July 1, 2023, and increasing to $10 in July of next year.
D.C. restaurants now have to find a way to come up with the money.
They have seemingly found the answer to these new money problems: surcharges.
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According to local news, the attorney general's office has received 152 complaints about the additional charges at restaurants in the six months since the bill passed.
Geoff Tracy, owner of Chef Geoff's, is implementing a 5 percent I82 surcharge on all bills and predicts that other restaurants will soon follow and increase this amount.
"I think every restaurant in D.C. will have a 20 percent service charge,” he said.
“I mean, if you go from $5 an hour to $15 an hour to $18 an hour, that’s a $400,000 increase for this restaurant alone. One restaurant. So that money is not there on the bottom line."
"So I would have to, I would have to enormously...
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