Without tipping, the quality of service in some restaurants will go down, as the financial incentive to hustle and provide great service disappears.

Anecdotal: when I first visited Thailand, tipping was not the custom (that may have since changed) and service is mid/low level places was horrible. It was almost funny watching the workers strain themselves to pretend not to see diners trying to get their attention.

PP 23:16
The initiative 77 proposing anything about protecting from harassment from drunk customers ?
The new minimum wage will not help with harassment from drunk customers . I think management should help with that by implementing certiain rules to protect employees regardless of they are tipped employees or salary employees.
I never like this line “Customer always right “ .Employees should have the right to refuse to serve the rude customers!

PP 22:35
If managers asking you clock out early while you still working you do know you can report them to the labor department. It is illegal and after hefty fines the management will do the right thing. I think you can report annonymosely if you afraid to loose the job !

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, English is not my first language. Thank you.

Your post was completely clear and easy to understand. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Let the people the initiative is trying to "help" vote on it. I have been working in restaurant business ca 20 years and I oppose it. There are other ways to help us. What about offering retirement or other benefits. Right now we have free food and plenty of unpaid vacation time. My schedule is also pretty flexible which is nice.
I read the article, but it was too much reading for me personally. I didn't even find the place where they talked about giving some of the tips or service charge to the back of the house for fairness. This article seemed to be about servers making more. We already make $12.50 per hour, and if somebody wants to help, then please enforce the minimum wage. I know my employer makes up the difference, but I think he hardly ever has to do it for servers. It's my job to budget properly for slow season's and busy seasons.
We have hard time finding servers in DC even though many places hire you without experience. It's not because they wouldn't make money, but because DC has highly educated people who didn't go to school to become servers. And ofcourse we have some who are not, but some of them need help finding the industry and/or some encouragement. This is one of industries that you can enter with no experience. I know I did, and we do give almost all a chance to try out. I'm not sure if it's going to stay so open to all if the owner has to pay more for a worker.
Nobody seems to know how the industry would change exactly. There's a lot of guessing and both sides have brought up some watered-down arguments. I almost got side-tracked by them. I really want to see more examples of what might happen or has happened if it passes or at least some educated guesses. And also, can we go back if it ends up being worse than it is now?
We put up with harassment to the point because "customers come first" and it can be very subtle. I don't want to put up with it. I wish my boss had a way to deal with it promptly. That's the help we need. I'm not saying putting up with harassment for tips doesn't happen, but an harassing customer (often tipsy) is a pain and can scare away other tipping customers. I usually want them to go - hell with the tips from them.
I think increased prices will cause customers to go out to eat less or they will spend less. Hot water with lemon, free bread, free wifi are already the usual requests at our full service restaurant.
This is only about DC, right? Too many tourist who don't know about tipping. I can have family of 4 spend $150 and leave me $0 right after they say how great everything was. We need help with that. I'm not saying I deserve to be tipped at all times. Plenty of time when I mess up, but that's not one of those times.
Sorry, English is not my first language. Thank you.

[quote=Anonymous]Tipped emolyees currently DO make $12.50. If tipped employee doesn’t make enough tip the employer obligated to make up the difference between $ 3.33 ( tipped min wage ) and $12.50 . So one way or another tipped emolyees make $12.50. So I don’t understand what exactly initiative 77 trying to accomplish here ?[/quote]

This is what is supposed to happen but often does not (managers will tell you to clock out when you are still at work, etc.).

I was a server for fifteen years. I have mixed feelings about this bill.

Anonymous wrote:It seems that most servers are against this initiative. I haven’t researched it but based on my very casual attention, it strikes me as one of those well-meaning, virtue-signaling type of initiatives that would actually result in terrible consequences for the people it’s purportedly trying to help. There are a lot of very mediocre restaurants in dc tho so if this initiative ends up closing those, then maybe that’s not a bad thing. But honestly, for stuff like that, I’d say let the market sort that out - not bone-headed regulations.

+1. Everyone I know in the hospitality industry is rallying against this.

Most of restaurants operate on very small profit margin so in order for them to pay minimum wage $12.50 to all tipped employees they need to raise the prices to come up with extra money to pay to former tipped employees. We as customers would not like to see prices to increase and most of the people would feel like there is no need to tip anymore since now all the wait stuff gets minimum wage right ?
So at the end of the day it will hurt tipped employees who will make way less than what they making now.
So again I still do not understand who will benefit from this change ???

Anonymous wrote:99% of servers that I have spoken to are against it. First of all as a restaurant owner, the first thing that will happen is not only cut employees, but cut hours to your great employees. This also affects FICA tax etc. Prices will rise and there is no doubt about it.

I can see prices rising, but as I mentioned in the original post, won't customers just tip less? If so, as far as customers are concerned, the net amount they pay will be roughly the same.

Tipped emolyees currently DO make $12.50. If tipped employee doesn’t make enough tip the employer obligated to make up the difference between $ 3.33 ( tipped min wage ) and $12.50 . So one way or another tipped emolyees make $12.50. So I don’t understand what exactly initiative 77 trying to accomplish here ?

99% of servers that I have spoken to are against it. First of all as a restaurant owner, the first thing that will happen is not only cut employees, but cut hours to your great employees. This also affects FICA tax etc. Prices will rise and there is no doubt about it.

Most servers and bartenders I have spoken to are opposed to it. I know it is anecdotal, but based on that, I am voting no.

It seems that most servers are against this initiative. I haven’t researched it but based on my very casual attention, it strikes me as one of those well-meaning, virtue-signaling type of initiatives that would actually result in terrible consequences for the people it’s purportedly trying to help. There are a lot of very mediocre restaurants in dc tho so if this initiative ends up closing those, then maybe that’s not a bad thing. But honestly, for stuff like that, I’d say let the market sort that out - not bone-headed regulations.

I support it. Some people dont tip, some places force waitstaff to split tips. Its not fair.

What are people's thoughts on Initiative 77 which would eliminate the tipped wage in DC? At first I was all for it. The current tipped minimum wage is only $3.33 an hour. This is considered a cause of sexual harassment given that female servers have to put up with unwanted attention to assure that they get good tips.

Restaurant owners are understandably opposed because it will increase their costs. I don't completely buy their argument that increased meal prices will cause customers to go out to eat less. Knowing that servers are earning more, customers can simply tip less and their out of pocket cost would be roughly the same. The owners also argue that servers currently make more through tips than they would with an increased minimum wage.

Today Chef Jose Andres came out against the initiative:

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/article/21006167/chef-jos-andrs-and-thinkfoodgroup-ask-voters-to-vote-no-on-initiative-77

Mayor Bowser and Council Chair Mendelson are also opposed. The Council would likely overturn the initiative if it passed, so maybe passing it would be for naught anyway.

What are other people's thoughts?