Washington overturns voters' bid to increase tipped workers' wage

Washington on Tuesday repealed a measure meant to increase the hourly minimum wage of tipped restaurant workers, a plan which residents of the American capital approved in a June ballot. More than 55 percent of Washington voters said they were in favor of the Minimum Wage Amendment Act, or Initiative 77, which would require businesses to ultimately pay workers who rely on tips the same wage as everybody else. The measure would have ended the city's two-tier wage system and gradually pushed servers' incomes to at least $15 per hour in subsequent years. Employers of tipped workers are currently exempt from paying the standard minimum wage of $13.25 an hour in Washington, which has a thriving restaurant scene. For tipped workers, the minimum is currently $3.89 an hour. If employees don't earn enough in tips to meet the minimum, employers are required to make up the difference. Tipping is an American tradition which represents 15 to 20 percent of a customer's bill. City council voted eight to five against enacting Initiative 77, which was strongly opposed by some business owners and employees. Restaurant operators claimed the hike would require them to raise their menu prices, while some employees worried that their wages would actually fall after the law went into effect. Servers who already make more than the minimum wage through tips were concerned customers would end up tipping less. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who also opposed the measure, must now ratify the council's vote to definitively end Initiative 77. The organization Repeal#77 congratulated the council for voting to "protect the take home pay of tens of thousands of tipped workers and the viability of neighborhoods." But the National Employment Law Project, a workers' advocacy group which supported Initiative 77, said the council's vote disregarded the will of voters. "The DC Council chose instead to listen to big money donors over its constituents, taking a dangerous track at a time that local democracy is under attack across the country," the organization said in a statement. About 18 percent of Washington's registered voters cast ballots in the June elections at which Initiative 77 was approved.