This week the Employment Policies Institute released a new study examining the impacts on DC restaurants of Initiative 82 – a ballot measure that would phase out the tip credit for restaurant workers by 2027.
The first phases of implementing Initiative 82 have wreaked havoc on the District’s once-robust dining scene. Instead of One Fair Wage’s false promises of “tips on top” and worker equity, restaurants and their employees have already experienced as many as 4,000 jobs lost, restaurants have downsized operations or closed, and restaurants have increased use of service charges in lieu of traditional tips.
- D.C. full-service restaurants have lost as many as 4,000 jobs since implementation of Initiative 82. Seventy percent of restaurants have cut hours, laid off staff or stopped hiring.
- Survey data shows restaurants in the city are closing at a higher rate than any year since the pandemic.
- Employees report that they are worse off under Initiative 82, not better.
- A database compiled by DC residents shows the exponential rise of service charges in the District.
- Another survey shows that if these wage hikes continue as planned, restaurants will continue layoffs, raising prices, adding service charges, and close down or leave the city for neighboring Maryland and Virginia.
- This on-the-ground evidence concurs with a larger national picture: Tip credit elimination tried elsewhere across the country has cut jobs and tips and shuttered restaurants.
- Recently, progressive voters in Massachusetts—led by that state’s Democratic governor—rejected tip credit elimination by two-to-one.
The study follows a recent documentary that chronicled the stories of workers negatively impacted by 82.
Read the full study here.