The last few years have fundamentally changed Americans’ relationship with restaurants. As the pandemic made diners more aware of the long hours and low pay built into the business, many began tipping more, donating to employee funds and lobbying elected officials for worker protections.
Now that awareness has translated into legislation that could reshape restaurants as we know them. Voters and lawmakers in 10 states, including New York, will decide this year whether to end the tipped minimum wage — a longstanding loophole that allows restaurant owners to pay their tipped workers a wage much lower than the minimum for other employees, on the understanding that tips will make up the difference.
For years, labor groups like One Fair Wage have contended that the practice denies many employees a living wage and leaves them reliant on customers’ willingness to tip. Supporters of the tipped minimum wage say it eases owners’ bottom line in a business that already runs on thin margins. Many have predicted that its abolition will drive up customer checks, sour them on eating out and force many places to close.
How valid are those worries? And will workers actually benefit from the change?
A useful place to look for answers is Washington, D.C., one of the first U.S. cities in decades to begin phasing out the tipped wage — a move so contentious that it took two elections to make it happen. (The measure passed in 2018 with 56 percent of the vote, but was repealed by the District of Columbia Council, only to pass again with nearly 75 percent support in 2022.)
More than a year into its experiment, the city — where food service, including a diverse collection of independent restaurants, is the third-largest sector of the local economy — is still torn. Trupti Patel, a server, said she received death threats for vocally supporting the end of the tipped minimum wage, and is still harassed. Another server who voted for the change, Britt Lucas, said that even today, she’s not speaking to some people because they disagree on the issue.
It’s still unclear exactly how the restaurant business will fare as the city slowly raises the tipped wage to match the standard minimum wage by 2027. But after interviewing more than 25 owners, chefs, workers and diners, we can offer some takeaways on how the policy, known as Initiative 82, is working out so far.
The dining scene is not imploding.
The number of restaurants in Washington has actually grown — to 3,472 last year, from 3,307 in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And new ones continue to open; according to Yelp, there were 283 openings in 2023, compared with 254 the previous year.
But many owners still fear that as the tipped wage rises, the added expense will drive them out of business. Rick Allison, who runs several restaurants in the district, Virginia and Maryland, said labor costs at his King Street Oyster Bar, in Washington, are up 12 percent from a year ago. He blames the initiative. Coming on top of rising rents and inflation, the impending wage increases are unsustainable, he said.
“People are going to close up,” he said, adding, “My next restaurant is in Virginia.”
Chris Kennedy, who co-owns the bar Reliable Tavern, sees the current challenges as short-term growing pains. “It will be a clunky few years in D.C., but we will find our way.”
Diners say high prices are hurting.
The average price of dining out in the Washington area rose 5.6 percent from December 2022 to December 2023, according to the labor-statistics bureau — a considerably bigger jump than the 3.4 percent increase nationally.
Higher prices, of course, are hardly an inside-the-Beltway anomaly these days. But many Washington restaurants have tried to offset their costlier payrolls by imposing service charges or raising menu prices.
Many customers said that the steeper tabs wouldn’t prevent them from eating out altogether, but that they might do it less often. Kashira Al-Sabir, a human resources assistant who was watching the Super Bowl at the Mexican restaurant Mission, has grown accustomed to paying $120 a head for brunch. “We used to spend $50 max to get the same experience,” she said.
Nicole Malli, a digital curator who was having breakfast at Elle, said she’s fine with the higher prices because restaurants contribute to the community, and she has adjusted her budget accordingly. “Why are we not complaining as much with Uber and DoorDash, but we are complaining when it comes to restaurants serving the community?”
Worker pay is rising, but not for all.
On paper, the numbers are strong. The tipped minimum wage has risen to $8 an hour from $5.35, and will grow to match whatever the district’s standard minimum wage is in 2027. (It’s now $17.) The median of average hourly earnings for all restaurant workers in Washington — including tips, overtime and other compensation — rose to $20.19 last December from $18.93 a year earlier, according to payroll data from the payments company Square.
In interviews, most workers said they supported the initiative. But many were unhappy at how it has played out. Noelle Phan, a server at a high-end cocktail bar, said her paycheck has shrunk by about $300 a week. The bar has added a 20 percent service charge, which she believes discourages tipping. It has also started offering contactless ordering through a QR code, so her hours have been reduced.
But Ms. Lucas, a server at the Sovereign, a Belgian restaurant in the affluent Georgetown neighborhood, said her pay has risen $200 or $300 per twice-monthly paycheck, while tips have remained steady. The restaurant recently increased menu prices to help meet higher labor costs.
Service charges have become the norm.
As restaurateurs grapple with higher labor costs, their most widespread tool appears to be the service charge — a fee of about 3 percent to 22 percent or more that’s added to the end of the check. Every restaurant disperses the money differently; some funnel it straight into employee pay, while others split it between staff and management.
Several owners who’ve added service charges said they didn’t want to raise menu prices, which could scare away customers; a service charge seems more palatable, they said, because it looks like a tip, which diners are used to paying.
But these fees were reviled by workers, who said they often have no idea where the money goes, and by customers, who may feel ambushed at meal’s end by the surcharge, even when restaurants disclose the policy on menus or websites. The consumer advocacy group Travelers United has filed two lawsuits against Washington restaurant groups with service charges.
“It is a bit misleading when you look at prices on the menu and you think it is going to cost a certain amount,” said Marcelo Kapelo, an investment banker who was dining at Bar Spero, a seafood restaurant with a 22 percent service charge. In part because of the new fees, he said, “I think D.C. is now more expensive than New York.”
Beatriz Pacheco, a busser at a high-end restaurant near the White House, said that since a 20 percent service charge was added last year, her weekly paychecks have fallen by a few hundred dollars. The owner, she said, won’t reveal how the money is spent. “When we ask questions he says, ‘Don’t worry. You have your check,’” she said.
Customers are more confused than ever.
With all the various added charges, diners aren’t sure how much to tip, or whether to tip at all. Many said they’d prefer that restaurants simply raise menu prices or tack on a mandatory tip.
Nada Elbasha, a bartender at a restaurant without a service charge, said that because those charges are so prevalent, people often don’t tip because they assume a fee has already been added.
Some places, like the Indian restaurant Daru, are trying to dispel the confusion around service charges. Servers explain to diners that a tip is not expected because the 20 percent service charge goes directly to employees. All Daru workers make a minimum wage of $22 an hour, said Dante Datta, the general manager. (Still, the restaurant hasn’t dropped the tip line on receipts.)
Maddi Cole, who serves at the neighborhood bar St. Vincent Wine, which automatically adds a 20 percent tip to each check, said diners seem far happier paying that than a service charge. “And I know I am getting tipped appropriately,” she said.
There are jobs, but the work is changing.
Employment in local restaurants is up — the number of workers increased to 14,168 last September from 13,690 a year earlier, according to federal data.
Still, some owners said that because of the higher wages, they are cross-training their existing staff in new roles rather than hiring new people. At Hiraya, a Filipino restaurant in the H Street Corridor, cashiers at the downstairs cafe also work as baristas and bus tables.
Mr. Allison, who runs King Street Oyster Bar, said he’ll hire only very experienced workers from now on. “We don’t want to waste money on training,” he said.
Many restaurants are being reinvented.
In response to Initiative 82, Elle, a cafe and bistro, is transforming to an all-day cafe to save on labor, as there will be more overlap between menus and the staff won’t have to open and close the restaurant twice each day. The new evening menu will be less expensive, too. Elle’s general manager, Monica Lee, said weeknight dinner service is attracting fewer customers because many are put off by higher menu prices.
“I think it would be nicer for somebody to order two $20 dishes versus one $30 dish,” she said. “That’s where we want to get — to entice those weekday diners to come in at a slightly lower price point.”
Other places are taking a more creative route. Rock Harper, a co-owner of the H Street Corridor cocktail bar Hill Prince, wants to turn the space into a podcast studio during the day. Hiraya, a Filipino restaurant nearby, will soon open a wine shop downstairs.
Workers are now top of mind.
For all the debate over ending the tipped wage, there’s wide agreement on one point: The change has made the public think harder about the people making and serving their food. That momentum has spurred workers to organize restaurant unions, lawmakers to scrutinize labor conditions, and more restaurants to offer paid time off and 401(k) plans.
“We are seeing a surge in the labor movement that we haven’t seen since the ’20s and ’30s,” said Eli Pine, a server at a Spanish wine bar in Washington.
The experience of Flagstaff, Ariz., which began phasing out the tipped minimum wage in 2016, points to a promising future. Both restaurant employment and the number of restaurants in Coconino County have risen in the decade since the measure passed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the meantime, Washington diners — many of whom voted to raise wages at a time when just about everything is getting more expensive — are likely to be left with a tough choice.
“You want workers to make enough to live, obviously, but you also want to go out and have a good time without breaking your bank,” said India Hamilton, who works in recruitment and was having dinner at Mission. “It is a sad situation all around.”
Audio produced by Adrienne Hurst.