Blog Posts

The District of Columbia has been rattled by the latest damage caused by its tip credit elimination law, Initiative 82 – the closing of Brookland’s Finest restaurant. The tragic closure of that DC institution is not an isolated occurrence, as Washingtonian reported: “There’s a lot of skeleton versions of…

This week, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his colleagues introduced legislation aimed at raising the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour and eliminating the tip credit for restaurant workers. An original EPI analysis–published in 2023 when Sanders first introduced similar legislation–shows that the proposal could cost millions…

April 1 marked one year since California’s $20 minimum wage went into effect. To lament the consequences the law has brought for Californians, the Employment Policies Institute ran a full-page ad in the California statewide edition of USA Today. The ad highlights the 16,000 fast food jobs that have…

Illinois lawmakers are trying again to push tip credit elimination for the entire state. Following the City of Chicago’s experiment with tip credit elimination that has already caused job losses and a rise in service charges, state lawmakers abandoned following suit with HB 5435 last year. Now some lawmakers are…

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…