It’s been a contentious issue in D.C. for nearly 10 years: should tipped workers be paid the same minimum wage as other workers?
Twice since 2018, D.C. residents have approved voter initiatives to pay tipped workers the same minimum wage.
In her budget proposal, Mayor Muriel Bowser included language repealing the law.
On Sunday, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson announced the council plans to vote Monday on what he called a compromise of lowering tipped minimum wage to $8 an hour but requiring employers to make up the difference if the $8 per hour plus tips does not equal $20 per hour. It would also cap any service fees restaurants charge be capped at 10%.
“The higher minimum wage for the tipped workers is a part of the compromise to make this more attractive to workers,” Mendelson said.”And the cap on the service fees, you may remember, is that I want to say months ago, but maybe it was a year ago, we had an extensive debate in the council about service fees, and there were, there’s a lot of controversy around them. So putting a cap on it is appealing to many people.”
Ryan O’Leary, the restaurant worker who proposed Initiative 82, told News4, “The ‘compromise’ on the table is an insult to workers’ intelligence and completely untenable.”
The council is also putting the brakes on another voter approved law. Mendelson said there will be no money to implement Initiative 83, which would have allowed ranked choice voting in D.C.
Mendelson told reporters the council is hoping to restore more than $100 million in cuts proposed by Bowser to programs including support for child care workers, rental assistance, low income housing and public safety.
Mendelson acknowledged the $60 million the council plans to use to save those programs comes from funds that have not been certified by the District’s chief financial officer, raising questions as to whether the CFO will approve the council’s budget
News4 reached out to the CFO and the mayor’s office for comment, and neither office replied. The council is set to vote on all of these issues Monday.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/qCd6DcH
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