By Sarah Roderick-Fitch | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – After being blamed for the closure of several Washington restaurants, Mayor Muriel Bowser is calling for the repeal of Initiative 82 requiring tipped employees to be paid the full minimum wage.
Bowser on Monday cited rising cost concerns for local restaurants unable to keep up with the initiative and at risk of closing while discussing her administration’s proposed 2026 fiscal year budget.
The initiative passed in November 2022 with a resounding 73.94% “yes” vote, going into effect July 1, 2024, increasing the base minimum wage for tipped employees from $8 an hour to $10. However, if a worker’s hourly tip earnings, averaged weekly, “added to the base minimum wage,” aren’t equal to the district’s “full minimum wage,” employers are required to pay the difference.
Starting July 1, 2024, the district increased the minimum wage from $17 to $17.50 per hour for tipped employees. The district added that “the minimum wage will progressively increase during each successive year pursuant to the Consumer Price Index.”
“D.C. restaurants are facing a perfect storm – from increased operating and supply costs to higher rents and unique labor challenges,” Bowser said in a statement. “D.C. must rebalance our system to ensure local restaurants can survive, compete, and employ D.C. residents.”
The mayor’s budget plan would bring the district’s policies “in line with the region by restoring D.C.’s previous tipped minimum wage law.”
The mayor’s announcement was welcomed by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, which says repealing the initiative will save jobs and restaurants.
“Let us be clear – repealing Initiative 82 is about saving jobs, saving restaurants, and stabilizing a vital sector of the District’s economy,” Shawn Townsend, president and CEO of RAMW, said in a statement. “Restaurants are cornerstones of our communities. Yet nearly 70% of them have already been forced to cut hours and lay off staff. In 2024 alone, the city saw a record 74 closures. The consequences of inaction are not hypothetical – they’re happening now.”
Townsend then called on the district’s council to repeal the initiative.
“The industry is at a breaking point,” he said. “Immediate relief is needed. The time to lead is now.”
Activist groups such as One Fair Wage, which was instrumental in the passage of Initiative 82, said it was needed to retain restaurant workers who they say had been “leaving the industry in droves” since the pandemic.
“Ending the subminimum wage would positively impacts an overall restaurant workforce of over 41,000 workers in Washington, D.C., 75% of which are people of color,” the group wrote.
The Employment Policies Institute disputes support for the initiative, saying it has claimed jobs for “thousands of tipped workers,” leading to “a staggering amount of restaurant closures” and price hikes.
The institute added that the mayor’s announcement comes on the heels of a “six-hour hearing” with the D.C. City Council, “where tipped workers expressed their fierce opposition” to the initiative.
“We thank Mayor Bowser for proposing decisive steps to address the devastation tipped workers have faced from Initiative 82,” said Rebekah Paxton, research director at the institute. “Advocates promised the law would bring higher wages with no impact on tips, but all D.C. tipped workers actually got were fewer tips, lost jobs, and closed restaurants.”
Bowser’s call for repealing the initiative is her latest attempt to save and drive businesses back into the district following the pandemic. The mayor was a vocal supporter of ending remote work for most federal government workers.
Last week, she announced massive plans to return the Washington Commanders to the district with a nearly $3 billion stadium. Not long after releasing her budget plan, she joined President Donald Trump at the White House to announce plans for the district to host the 2027 NFL draft.
