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 approved voter initiatives requiring businesses to pay tipped workers the same minimum wage as workers who don’t get tips.
In her recent 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. The proposal would lower the tipped minimum wage to $8 an hour and require 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 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. “We had an extensive debate in the council about service fees, and … 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 he rejects the proposal.
“The ‘compromise’ on the table is an insult to workers’ intelligence and completely untenable,” O’Leary said.
As Council members prepared to take the first vote on the budget Monday, dozens of protesters rallied on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building.
“We are here today because the Council is trying to sneak through one of the most anti-D.C. budgets that I have ever seen,” Aparna Raj, an advocate with the Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, said. “This budget exploits workers, attacks immigrants, pushes out renters, abandons families and steals from the people to give to the rich.”
The debate over the tipped wage
Last month, the D.C. Council voted to pause a planned pay boost. Dueling demonstrations outside the Wilson Building for and against Initiative 82 each drew dozens of people.
Veronica Tucker, a restaurant worker who supports the higher tipped wage, said, “For me, it means my friends and coworkers get to make decent earnings and keep them.”
The D.C. mayor’s call to repeal Initiative 82 came as restaurant owners said higher costs threaten their businesses.
Council will also consider ranked choice voting, program cuts
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 that $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/BC0chYZ
0 Comments