Blog Posts

A new survey from the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) of local D.C. restaurants shows businesses are preparing for a bumpy year as the road to tip credit elimination continues under Initiative 82. On July 1, local restaurant operators will see another tipped wage hike – from $10 to…

New analysis from the Employment Policies Institute of quarterly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that California has lost as many as 16,000 jobs since the state’s $20 fast food minimum wage law was signed in September 2023. (The state is down nearly 14,000 jobs since the law…

On Sunday night, British television host John Oliver dedicated an episode of Last Week Tonight to the subject of tipping. What started as a humorous jab at consumer frustration over tipping in places like self-serve frozen yogurt stands then took aim at tipping culture in America’s restaurants. The remainder of…

Despite headlines for over a year, numerous looks at government data sources, and reporting from restaurant operators and employees, the union-funded researchers at the UC Berkeley labor center refuse to acknowledge the state’s $20 fast food minimum wage has caused problems. Surprisingly, the latest report from UC Berkeley’s Michael…

A new SEIU-funded study alleges that Los Angeles’ fast food workers are experiencing elevated levels of wage theft. The study has been promoted by the union in advance of a hearing next week of the state’s Fast Food Council. But actual claims data collected by state and federal wage enforcement…

As the February 21 deadline fast approaches for Michigan lawmakers to fix a pending tip credit elimination law, anti-tip credit advocates are making false promises. In a Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee hearing this week, Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) deputy director Sean Egan claimed eliminating Michigan’s tip…

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…