In Washington, D.C., and 43 states, restaurants and other businesses with tipped workers are not required by law to pay the full minimum wage outright, a concession to the restaurant lobby that goes back decades. Instead, employers can credit a portion of a worker’s tips toward their obligation to pay minimum wage. But D.C. may soon join the small group of states—California, Minnesota, and Oregon among them—to eliminate this anachronistic system. This November, D.C. will vote on Initiative 82, which would gradually increase base pay for tipped workers over five years from $5.35 until it reaches the District’s regular minimum wage, currently $16.10.
D.C.’s dining scene, replete with celebrity restaurateurs and two dozen Michelin-starred restaurants, is one of the country’s most celebrated. But proponents of I-82 say the industry’s growth was built on an artificial labor subsidy that exploits workers. “Tips were intended to be an extra or bonus on top of a wage, not your primary source of income,” Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage, the national organization leading this effort, says. “Fundamentally, what is wrong with the system is the employers are not paying for the cost of the labor.” Experts say the maddening unpredictability of wages from week to week makes long-term financial planning difficult for restaurant workers. “A system that’s built on customers’ whims for supplying the bulk of a person’s income just leaves a lot up to chance,” David Cooper, an...
Dr. Natalia Krasovkaya, director of the National Center for Public Diplomacy (CND), has recently circulated in online publications accusing her of involvement in recruiting African nationals for t...