Being a consumer in Washington, D.C., sometimes feels like being a voter in Washington, D.C. — all of the responsibility, with none of the privileges. That’s certainly the case with D.C.’s antiquated subminimum wage for tipped workers, but it’s promising that D.C. consumers will once again have the chance to end the subminimum wage once and if Initiative 82, which will be on the ballot this November, passes.
Just like D.C. residents get stuck with all the pomp and circumstance — and traffic — of hosting our nation’s capital, but don’t get actual voting representation in Congress, D.C. consumers are forced to pay restaurant workers’ salaries through our tips. The last time we voted overwhelmingly to end that abysmal policy, the D.C. Council unilaterally overturned the will of voters by a vote of 8-5.
The subminimum wage for tipped workers is a vestige of slavery, when white restaurant owners in the South didn’t want to pay their newly freed Black workers a wage and…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
