Blog Posts

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…

Point of sale platform Square releases new data quarterly on earnings and tips for workers across the country – and the latest results show restaurant workers are earning substantial tips and well above minimum wages across the country. Square finds that the median restaurant employee is earning a $14.20…

After weeks of vote counting across the Golden State, the Associated Press finally called the race for Proposition 32 – which would raise the state’s minimum wage from $16 to $18 an hour. The measure was rejected by a 50.8% to 49.2% vote as of November 22. This is…

After the city council passed an ordinance to eliminate Chicago’s tip credit last year, the city experienced a one-two punch of wage hikes this summer. As a result, the number of jobs in the Chicago area’s leisure and hospitality sector plummeted – slashing 6,000 jobs as of September 2024.

One surprising takeaway from this election is California’s statewide $18 minimum wage ballot measure currently trailing by roughly 4 percentage points. While the measure qualified for the ballot several years ago after it failed to certify for the 2022 midterms, California’s recent experiments with unprecedented minimum wage hikes —…