Initiative 82

Last updated

Initiative 82
An initiative to increase the minimum wage for tipped employees to the same level as non-tipped employees.
Results
Choice
Votes %
Check-71-128-204-brightblue.svgYes132,92573.94%
Light brown x.svgNo46,86126.06%
Valid votes179,786100.00%
Invalid or blank votes25,72314.31%
Total votes179,786100.00%
DC Initiative 82 2022.svg
Precinct results
Yes
  80–90%
  70–80%
  60–70%
  50–60%

This section is an excerpt from Initiative 77 § Political arguments.[ edit ]

For

  • Employers have too much power over tipped employees, and it results in wage theft. Major restaurants that do business in the district have settled lawsuits that made allegations of wage theft. [13]
  • The tipped minimum wage extends far beyond bartenders and waitstaff, for example nail stylists, landscapers, valets, cab drivers, bellhops, massage therapists, and housecleaners, among others. These workers are disproportionally women, people of color, living in poverty, and are often not tipped the same as bartenders and waitstaff. [14] [15]
  • Tipped workers have to tolerate inappropriate behavior from customers, including sexual harassment, to avoid a reduction in tips. The majority of tipped workers in D.C. reported having experienced sexual harassment while at work. [14]
  • The tipped minimum wage is a legacy of slavery. [16] While tipping existed before the abolition of slavery, employers in the railroad and restaurant industries – where formerly enslaved African Americans worked – used the practice to keep their wages low. [17]

Against

  • Tipped wages keep business's operating costs down, especially for bars and restaurants, which can have tiny profit margins. Eliminating the wage means that businesses will either generate less profit or raise their prices to address the new costs. [13]
  • Tips enable a worker to earn much more than the minimum wage, while never making less than it. Opponents argue that customers will stop tipping since they believe that workers are earning a suitable wage. Workers who were making more than the minimum wage on average will see their incomes decrease. [13] Supporters pointed out that in all jurisdictions where the tipped minimum wage was abolished, there was no change in established tipping practices. [15]
  • Most tipped workers who publicly spoke about eliminating the tipped minimum wage have been in the opposition. However, supporters argue that tipped workers in support fear retaliation from their employers, who are mostly in opposition, and do not express their support publicly. [15]

Support and opposition

The campaign committee behind the Initiative was the D.C. Committee to Build A Better Restaurant Industry, which raised $461,854.65 [18] in donations, which were mostly used for collecting sufficient signatures to appear on the ballot. [19] The largest contributions to the campaign were from Open Society Policy Center, [20] Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, [21] and Mintwood Strategies. [20]

The campaign committee against the initiative was called No to 82 and was run out of the K Street office of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. [22] The opposition campaign received $685,622.70 in contributions from the National Restaurant Association, [23] Darden Restaurants, [23] Starr Restaurants, [23] Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, [22] Brinker International, [22] Farmers Restaurant Group, [22] as well as other trade groups, and a number of restaurants located in DC. [19]

Although Initiative 77 was overruled by the council, the Washington City Paper reported that, due to changes in membership, a majority of members said they would not vote to overturn it, so "Initiative 82 looks safe should voters approve it in November". [24] However, before the Initiative completed its congressional review period, the DC Council voted to delay the first pay raise until May 1, 2023. [3]

Pay Raises

The District of Columbia's Fair Shot Minimum Wage Emergency Amendment Act of 2016 gradually increased both the standard and tipped minimum wages each July until July 2020, when they eventually equaled $15 and $5, respectively. Each year since, the minimum wages have increased in proportion to any increases in the local consumer price index. [25]

Beginning on May 1, 2023, the first pay raise for tipped workers will go into effect. [3] The second tipped minimum wage increase will take place two months later on July 1, 2023, [8] and gradually increase annually until the tipped minimum wage equals the prevailing minimum wage on July 1, 2027.

Due to the variability of the consumer price index, the exact annual minimum wage increases cannot be known for 2024 through 2027. However, the minimum wage is not scheduled to decrease, so the information listed in the table below is based on the latest information from the Office of Wage-Hour Compliance [8] and the legislative text of the Initiative. [2]

Ref [8] [2]
YearTipped
Minimum Wage		IncreaseMinimum Wage
(Indexed to Inflation)		Difference Between the
Tipped Minimum Wage
and
Minimum Wage
1/1/2023$5.35$0.00$16.10$10.75
5/1/2023$6.00$0.65$16.10$10.10
7/1/2023$8.00$2.00$17.00$9.00
7/1/2024$10.00$2.00$17.50 [8]
(Current)		$7.50
7/1/2025$12.00$2.00At least
$17.50		Less than
$5.50
7/1/2026$14.00$2.00At least
$17.50		Less than
$3.50
7/1/2027At least
$17.50		At least
$3.50		At least
$17.50		$0.00

On July 1, 2027, the tipped wage will be eliminated in the District of Columbia and there will be one minimum wage for all workers. The exact minimum wage will not be known until January 2027. [25]

Vote

Initiative 82, officially presented as the "District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act of 2021," had the following description on ballots:

Under current law, employers of employees classified as "tipped workers" may take a credit against tipped wages received by workers to satisfy the minimum wage guaranteed to all workers by law. If enacted, the Initiative would gradually eliminate the credit, such that the mandatory base wage (currently $5.05 per hour, indexed to inflation) paid by employers shall increase until 2027, when the mandatory base wage matches the minimum wage established by District of Columbia law (currently $15.20 per hour, indexed to inflation). Tips continue as property of employees and will be in addition to the statutory minimum hourly wage. [26]

On November 8, 2022, in the general election, D.C. voters approved the measure with 73.94% of valid votes, a margin of nearly 50%. Over 25,000 voters, more than 12% of all voters that participated, chose to leave the question blank. [27]

Initiative 82
ChoiceVotes %
Check-71-128-204-brightblue.svg Yes132,92573.94
No46,86126.06
Valid votes179,78687.52
Over and undervotes 25,72312.48
Total votes205,509100.00
Registered voters/turnout504,81540.69
Source: District of Columbia Board of Elections [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Because minimum wages increase the cost of labor, companies often try to avoid minimum wage laws by using gig workers, by moving labor to locations with lower or nonexistent minimum wages, or by automating job functions. Minimum wage policies can vary significantly between countries or even within a country, with different regions, sectors, or age groups having their own minimum wage rates. These variations are often influenced by factors such as the cost of living, regional economic conditions, and industry-specific factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minimum wage in the United States</span>

In the United States, the minimum wage is set by U.S. labor law and a range of state and local laws. The first federal minimum wage was instituted in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but later found to be unconstitutional. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act established it at 25¢ an hour. Its purchasing power peaked in 1968, at $1.60. In 2009, Congress increased it to $7.25 per hour with the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections in the District of Columbia</span>

The District of Columbia holds general elections every two years to fill various D.C. government offices, including mayor, attorney general, members of the D.C. Council, members of the D.C. State Board of Education, and members of its Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time. Additionally, citywide ballot measures may be proposed and voted on.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libertarian Party of the District of Columbia</span> D.C. affiliate of the Libertarian Party

The Libertarian Party of the District of Columbia is a political party in the United States active in the District of Columbia. It is a recognized affiliate of the national Libertarian Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Grosso</span> American politician (born 1970)

David Grosso is an American attorney and politician. He is a former at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia who lives in Brookland. A native Washingtonian, he graduated from Earlham College and Georgetown University Law Center. Grosso is a member of the D.C. Bar. Following the completion of his second term on the D.C. Council, he joined the law firm Arent Fox as a lobbyist.

The tipped wage is base wage paid to an employee in the United States who receives a substantial portion of their compensation from tips. According to a common labor law provision referred to as a "tip credit", the employee must earn at least the state's minimum wage when tips and wages are combined or the employer is required to increase the wage to fulfill that threshold. This ensures that all tipped employees earn at least the minimum wage: significantly more than the tipped minimum wage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fight for $15</span> Political movement in the United States

The Fight for $15 is an American political movement advocating for the minimum wage to be raised to USD$15 per hour. The federal minimum wage was last set at $7.25 per hour in 2009. The movement has involved strikes by child care, home healthcare, airport, gas station, convenience store, and fast food workers for increased wages and the right to form a labor union. The "Fight for $15" movement started in 2012, in response to workers' inability to cover their costs on such a low salary, as well as the stressful work conditions of many of the service jobs which pay the minimum wage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minimum Wage Fairness Act</span> Bill of the 113th U.S. Congress

The Minimum Wage Fairness Act is a bill that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to increase the federal minimum wage for employees to $10.10 per hour over the course of a two-year period. The bill was strongly supported by President Barack Obama and many of the Democratic Senators, but strongly opposed by Republicans in the Senate and House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 District of Columbia Attorney General election</span>

The 2014 District of Columbia Attorney General election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the Attorney General of Washington, D.C., concurrently with elections to the United States Senate in various states and elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elissa Silverman</span> Washington, D.C. politician

Elissa Silverman is an American politician and reporter from Washington, D.C., the United States capital. She served as an independent at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 2015 to 2023. Before 2015, she was a journalist at The Washington Post and Washington City Paper covering D.C. politics, and a policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. She was re-elected in November 2018 for a four-year term, but lost her re-election bid in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Maine Question 4</span>

Maine Question 4, formally An Act to Raise the Minimum Wage, is a citizen-initiated referendum question that appeared on the Maine November 8, 2016 statewide ballot. It sought to increase Maine's minimum wage from $7.50 per hour to $12 an hour by 2020, as well as increasing the minimum wage for tipped employees gradually to the same level by 2024. It would also index increases after 2024 to inflation. As the Maine Legislature and Governor Paul LePage declined to enact the proposal as written, it appeared on the ballot along with elections for President of the United States, Maine's two U.S. House seats, the Legislature, other statewide ballot questions, and various local elections. Efforts to place a competing, more moderate proposal alongside the citizen-initiated bill were unsuccessful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Fair Wage</span> US nonprofit organization

One Fair Wage is a nonprofit non-governmental organization in the United States that is led by Saru Jayaraman for restaurant workers to end the sub-minimum wage for tip workers who make less than the minimum wage before tips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairness Project</span> Charitable organization in the U.S.

The Fairness Project is a United States 501(c)(4) charitable organization created in October 2015. They promote general economic and social justice throughout the US by the use of ballot measures to circumvent deadlocks in law changes by the legislative and executive branches of government. They act as a national body by supporting state organizations and campaigns with targeted funding rather than by direct campaigning. They support the gathering of signatures to meet the variable requirements to trigger ballots in states and then aid the campaigns with early financial backing, strategic advice, and various campaign tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Initiative 77</span> 2018 Washington, D.C., ballot measure

Initiative 77 was a voter-approved ballot initiative in Washington, D.C., to phase out the special minimum wage for tipped employees as part of the national Fight for $15 campaign. In the June 2018 primary election, D.C. voters approved Initiative 77 by a margin of 56% to 44%; however, the D.C. Council repealed the initiative in October before it could enter into force. In 2022, a nearly identical Initiative 82 was approved for the November 8, 2022 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 California Proposition 22</span> Gig economy workers employment status ballot initiative

Proposition 22 was a ballot initiative in California that became law after the November 2020 state election, passing with 59% of the vote and granting app-based transportation and delivery companies an exception to Assembly Bill 5 by classifying their drivers as "independent contractors", rather than "employees". The law exempts employers from providing the full suite of mandated employee benefits while instead giving drivers new protections:

The Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act is a Californian law which brings multiple reforms to the state's fast food industry. The bill's provisions aim to allow workers and California state to hold fast-food chains responsible for issues like wage theft and overtime pay, and establish a council which itself shall be responsible for establishing minimum standards for fast food workers. The regulations will apply to any chain in California that has at least 100 stores nationwide that share a common brand. The bill has since been passed by both the Assembly and State Senate, and was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 5, 2022.

The following is a list of ballot measures which were on the ballot for the 2022 United States elections. Some were held prior to the federal elections on November 8. Many were initiated by state legislatures, while others were initiated by public petitions. In all, there were 141 ballot measures on ballots across most U.S. states and the District of Columbia at any point throughout the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 California Proposition 32</span>

Proposition 32 was a California ballot proposition that was voted on as part of the 2024 California elections on November 5. As of 13 November 2024, around 51% of tallied votes had voted "no" but the race remained too close to call. If passed, the proposition would enact the Living Wage Act of 2022 which would increased the state's minimum wage to $18 per hour by 2025 and adjust it every year to reduce the impact of inflation.

References

  1. ↑ Nirappil, Fenit (October 5, 2018). "'Poisoning democracy': in a city without representation in Congress, repeal of ballot measure angers residents". The Washington Post. Washington, DC. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "B24-1149 - Initiative 82 – District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act of 2022". DC Council (Act). Washington, DC. February 23, 2023. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Amanda Michelle Gomez (January 17, 2023). "D.C. Council Votes To Delay Minimum Wage Increase for Tipped Workers To May". DCist. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  4. ↑ Ally Schweitzer (June 22, 2021). "A Former D.C. Restaurant Worker Is Reviving A Controversial Initiative On The Tipped Minimum Wage". DCist. Archived from the original on June 22, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  5. ↑ Ally Schweitzer (August 26, 2021). "D.C. Voters Might Get Another Chance To Weigh In On The Tipped Minimum Wage". DCist. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  6. ↑ Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc (October 13, 2021). "DC Board of Elections, October 2021 Monthly Meeting, Transcript". Trasnscript. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  7. ↑ "D.C. Minimum Wage to Increase to $15.20 on July 1, 2021". DC Department of Employment Services (Press Release). June 30, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Department of Employment Services. "Minimum Wage". Office of Wage-Hour Compliance. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  9. ↑ Washington Post Staff (October 31, 2022). "D.C. I-82 foes hope last-ditch appeal will keep measure off ballot". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  10. ↑ Hopkins, Paige (October 25, 2022). "Here's what Initiative 82 could mean for tipping in D.C." Axios. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  11. ↑ Washington Post Staff (October 31, 2022). "D.C. elections: What to know about Initiative 82". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  12. ↑ Hopkins, Paige (September 12, 2022). "D.C.'s Initiative 82 spurs another battle over tips". Axios. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 Austermuhle, Martin; Gomez, Amanda Michelle (October 19, 2022). "Here's Everything You Need to Know About Initiative 82". NPR . Retrieved December 5, 2022.
  14. 1 2 Quinnell, Kenneth (June 18, 2018). "What You Need to Know About Washington, D.C.'s Initiative 77 and the Minimum Wage". AFL–CIO . Retrieved December 5, 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 Capps, Kriston (June 14, 2018). "D.C.'s War Over Restaurant Tips Will Soon Go National". Bloomberg News . Retrieved December 5, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". DC Committee to Build a Better Restaurant Industry. Retrieved December 5, 2022. The tip credit is a relic of slavery and we believe tipped workers deserve one fair wage, with tips on top.
  17. ↑ Testino, Laura (December 16, 2020). "Fact Check: Tipping Began Amid Slavery, Then Helped Keep Former Black Slaves' Wages Low". USA Today . Retrieved December 5, 2022.
  18. ↑ Office of Campaign Finance (January 31, 2023). "Office of Campaign Finance Report on Receipts and Expenditures". DC Government, Office of Campaign Finance, January 31st Report. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  19. 1 2 Martin Austermuhle; Amanda Michelle Gomez (October 19, 2022). "Here's everything you need to know about D.C.'s Initiative 82". NPR.org. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  20. 1 2 Office of Campaign Finance (November 30, 2022). "Office of Campaign Finance Report on Receipts and Expenditures, January 31 Report" . Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  21. ↑ Office of Campaign Finance (November 30, 2022). "Office of Campaign Finance Report on Receipts and Expenditures, 8 Day Pre General Election Report" . Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Office of Campaign Finance (July 11, 2022). "Office of Campaign Finance Report on Receipts and Expenditures, Second Report" . Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  23. 1 2 3 Office of Campaign Finance (January 31, 2023). "Office of Campaign Finance Report on Receipts and Expenditures, January 31st Report" . Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  24. ↑ Koma, Alex (September 20, 2022). "Most Councilmembers Won't Seek Another Repeal If Tipped Wage Ballot Measure Passes - Washington City Paper". Washington City Paper. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  25. 1 2 "Fair Shot Minimum Wage Emergency Amendment Act of 2016" (Act). June 28, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  26. ↑ "District of Columbia Board of Elections - 2022 Elections". www.dcboe.org. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  27. 1 2 "General Election 2022 - Certified Results". District of Columbia Board of Elections. November 30, 2022. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.