February 23, 2024

NY’s Ill-Advised “One Fair Wage” Bill Isn’t What Workers Want

New York lawmakers reintroduced a so-called “One Fair Wage” bill earlier this year, threatening to eliminate the state tip credit in just a few years. If enacted, the bill would raise the base wage for tipped restaurant workers from $10 per hour upstate and $10.65 per hour downstate up…
February 16, 2024

Listen to Maryland Employees: Save the Tip Credit

Earlier this month, over a hundred local employees filed into a Maryland Senate Finance Committee hearing between shifts – pleading with state lawmakers to preserve the existing tip credit system. Despite such a cold reception to a policy that’s been reintroduced by progressive lawmakers for years, House Delegate Adrian…
February 9, 2024

UPDATE: New State Wage Hikes Could Kill Roughly 212K Jobs

As state legislatures start off the new year, lawmakers have been quick to jump on new minimum wage hike proposals, including bills that would eliminate state tip credits. The research on potential impacts of these bills is clear: they employees by reducing employment opportunities, limiting earnings, and forcing businesses to…
February 2, 2024

New Anti-Tip Credit Bill Would Turn Maryland Into D.C. Disaster

This week, the Maryland Senate Finance Committee heard public testimony on SB 160, a bill that would eliminate Maryland’s tip credit and raise the base wage for tipped restaurant workers by over 300 percent by 2027. The bill mirrors legislation from last year that died in the committee after restaurant…
January 26, 2024

San Francisco “Among the Toughest Places” to Run A Restaurant

It’s no secret that California and its flagship cities have become notorious for burdensome mandates. California also has the highest state minimum wage in the nation at $16 per hour effective January, with many of its cities raising rates even higher. San Francisco currently requires a minimum wage of $18.07…
January 19, 2024

Newly Proposed State Wage Hikes Could Kill Nearly 100K Jobs

As state legislatures start off the new year, lawmakers have been quick to jump on new minimum wage hike proposals, including bills that would eliminate state tip credits. The research on potential impacts of these bills is clear: they employees by reducing employment opportunities, limiting earnings, and forcing businesses to…
January 12, 2024

Bad Policy Has Caused a “Dining Disaster” in the District of Columbia

Marking the anniversary of ill-fated Initiative 82 in Washington, D.C. at the end of 2023 were serious consequences: lost restaurant jobs, lost tip earnings for restaurants’ servers and bartenders, and even a wave of beloved neighborhood restaurant closures. In the Wall Street Journal, EPI’s Michael Saltsman and Rebekah Paxton write about the…
December 29, 2023

Minimum Wage Hikes Are Leaving Casualties in their Wake

Decades of economic research has documented how minimum wage hikes cause employment loss and business closures. In a year with a record number of wage hikes and historic inflationary increases, 2023 has seen mass business casualties, particularly for the restaurant industry, as a result of the activism for higher wage…
December 22, 2023

Nonpartisan CBO Finds Bernie’s $17 Minimum Wage Is a Bad Deal for Workers

Earlier this year, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage up to $17 per hour and eliminate the tip credit, a hike of more than 134 percent. This week, the Congressional Budget Office released a review of the economic impacts of Sanders’ proposal, detailing the…
December 15, 2023

Rising Minimum Wages Meets Rising Restaurant Inflation

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that in November, the price of dining out increased three times more than the price of eating at home. As states and cities across the nation brace to raise minimum wages in the New Year, elected officials should be wary of the impacts…