After Initiative 82 Passes, D.C. Restaurants Look To Ease Transition Away From Tipped Wages
D.C. voters have overwhelmingly approved Initiative 82, which phases out the tipped minimum wage and will require business owners to pay tipped workers like bartenders and servers the city’s full minimum wage by 2027 without relying on gratuity.
Now, bar and restaurant owners are weighing how to respond, both within their establishments — by raising menu prices or adding service charges to offset increased labor costs, for example — and externally. Some owners and their advocates are already trying to persuade D.C. lawmakers to pass legislation that will ease small businesses’ transition away from the tipped minimum wage.
And there’s an appetite among the D.C. Council and the mayor’s office to hear them out.