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While California and D.C. have made most headlines about bad wage laws hurting restaurants and their employees, another restaurant crisis is quietly brewing elsewhere: in Colorado. Statewide, Colorado has a small tip credit (just $3.02), but annually adjusts its minimum wage every year according to inflation (current $14.81 per hour).

Proponents of California’s AB 1228, which passed in September 2023 to raise the minimum wage for the fast food industry to $20 per hour, have repeatedly claimed the law has been “benign,” or even good (a “win-win-win”) for the state. Federal data shows the opposite. In addition to the…

Last week, the D.C. City Council Committee on Executive Administration and Labor held a six-hour hearing to get feedback from employees and restaurants on how the city’s tip credit elimination law is affecting them. Dozens of tipped restaurant workers testified saying the law – Initiative 82 – was hurting their…

This week, the District of Columbia City Council Committee on Executive Administration and Labor hosted a hearing to hear employees’ experiences after a year and change under Initiative 82, which is eliminating the city’s tip credit. Under the law, D.C. restaurants have been subject to three tipped wage hikes…

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…

It’s no secret that states like California and Washington–which have a flat minimum wage with no tip credit–have had some of the lowest average tipping percentages in the nation. Seven states (California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Minnesota, and Alaska) prohibit tip credits, which allow restaurant workers to earn…

Last week, The Atlantic Magazine published an article calling California’s $20 fast food minimum wage “the job killer that wasn’t.” Except even the data they cite shows job losses, including the most recent data released for November 2024. Despite widespread reports of layoffs and store closures, the article states: “Since California’s…

As the year draws to a close, states and local areas are preparing for a wave of minimum wage hikes beginning January 1. This year, 111 jurisdictions will raise minimum wages, including in 23 states and 78 cities and counties. As more areas are enacting minimum wage increases state- and…

It’s been a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad week for California Governor Gavin Newsom. After hanging his hat on the $20 minimum wage being a “good” thing for his state, EPI and local news outlets slammed him for lies about job losses as…

There are a lot of numbers swirling around describing the impact of Governor Gavin Newsom’s $20 fast food minimum wage law in California. On one hand, the Governor is claiming there haven’t been any job losses (in fact citing preliminary data not adjusted for seasonal hiring factors to say there…