Democrats in Congress are boycotting D.C. restaurants, thus handing restaurant workers even more challenges as they fight to win back their pay.
As part of its campaign to organize local restaurant workers, UNITE HERE Local 25 has called for consumers to stop patronizing local restaurants, with publicity-hungry members of Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reportedly happy to oblige.
This political stunt could not come at a worse time for the city’s servers and bartenders. For several years now, they have been fighting a harmful law backed by the union that changed the District’s tipping system.
In 2018, a New York-based labor group called One Fair Wage bankrolled a ballot measure, Initiative 77 that would replace D.C.’s current tipped wage system (known as a tip credit), which allows tipped income to be counted toward an employee’s minimum wage requirement. Their plan was to replace the system with a new one that dramatically increased the base wage but put workers’ tips at risk.
Though voters passed it narrowly, the Initiative proved deeply unpopular with servers and bartenders, who campaigned aggressively against it. The D.C. Council later overturned Initiative 77, following a 12-hour hearing during which countless servers and bartenders urged the council to save their industry.
That should have been the end of it. But these same funders came back to prop up a similar measure, called Initiative 82, in 2022, when the restaurant industry and its workers were struggling post-pandemic.
This time, no one put up a serious fight. The measure sailed through with promises of a stronger and more vibrant restaurant industry. Instead, the opposite has happened. Now, tipped workers’ incomes are down as a consequence of the law. A boycott — urged by the law’s supporters, no less — would put servers’ pay further at risk.
The damage is seen most clearly in data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows that D.C. restaurants and bars lost nearly 5 percent of industry employment since the law went into effect, even though the rest of the District’s industries gained jobs. Employees also lost out on $11.8 million in earnings because of this law.
In January, Councilmember Anita Bonds convened a roundtable hearing for tipped workers to share their experiences under the law. It ran for nearly six hours, with dozens of workers sharing the negative consequences that Initiative 82 has had on their livelihoods.
Laura, a longtime D.C. bartender, said: “Since Initiative 82 … I’m now making up to 50 percent less.” Another server, Yana, explained that her “working hours were cut by five to 10 hours per week.”
Lili, another server, explained the impact on staffing: “Since Initiative 82 … staff was cut. All of the sudden I don’t have my food runners and bussers. I don’t have my polishers. I’m now having a larger section with less help.”
It’s not just employees who are struggling — their employers are, too. Seventy-three restaurants closed last year, and more than 20 have closed so far this year. Many, including Brookland’s Finest and Sticky Rice, explicitly blame Initiative 82.
Even Michelin-starred Tail Up Goat announced it would be closing this year, citing the insurmountable costs of doing business in the District: “The margins keep getting smaller.”
Local lawmakers are paying attention. In May, Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed to restore the District’s tipping system, citing adverse economic impacts that eliminating the tip credit has had on D.C.’s restaurants and workers.
Last month, the majority-Democratic City Council voted 8-4 to pause a $2 increase in the base wage for tipped workers while it assesses the mayor’s proposal. One of the groups still advocating for this devastating law is UNITE HERE Local 25. It has the backing of out-of-touch federal politicians ignorant of how Initiative 82 has hurt local workers.
If Washington Democrats want to bring attention to the plight of restaurant workers, they would support the repeal of Initiative 82 instead of boycotting restaurants for a union-backed publicity stunt that is hurting workers.
Michael Saltsman is the executive director and Rebekah Paxton is the research director at the Arlington, Va.-based Employment Policies Institute.
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