Facing pressure and protests, D.C. Council partially repeals tipped wage ballot initiative

The D.C. Council on Monday stepped back into what has been one of the city’s most contentious issues over the last seven years, voting to partially repeal a voter-approved ballot initiative that phases out the tipped minimum wage that’s paid to restaurant workers.

The 7-5 vote – which came during an hours-long debate on the city’s budget for 2026 – put lawmakers in an uncomfortable position, sandwiched between the 74% of D.C. voters that approved Initiative 82 in 2022 and the increasing complaints from Mayor Muriel Bowser and some employers that the mandated increases to the tipped wage were driving restaurants out of business. 

The council’s move set off immediate and angry responses from protesters, who repeatedly interrupted the debate with yells of “Shame!” before security cleared the room and locked the doors. They continued yelling outside the council chambers, with protesters occasionally hitting the wooden doors to express their anger. 

It’s not the first time the council has had to navigate the issue, either – in 2018 it repealed a similar ballot initiative. 

If you’re only catching up to this debate, workers in restaurants and a few other industries (including nail salons and parking lots) are paid a sub-minimum wage and allowed to collect tips on top of that. If those tips don’t get them up to the regular minimum wage (now $17.95), their employer is required to make up the difference. Initiative 82 has been slowly phasing out the tipped wage (it’s currently $10), and by 2027 those workers would simply be paid the prevailing minimum wage. 

Proponents have said that getting rid of the tipped wage brings more financial stability to all workers and prevents wage theft from employers, while critics have said it dramatically increases labor costs – making it tougher for restaurants and other businesses already operating on slim profit margins to stay afloat.

Earlier this year Bowser called for Initiative 82 to be fully repealed, a move that would have sent restaurant workers’ base wage down to $5.95. A majority of councilmembers rejected that, and earlier this month they also shot down a separate proposal that would have brought the base wage down to $8 while granting those workers a guaranteed “super minimum wage” of $20.  

But on Monday they found a “compromise” enough of them could live with, spearheaded by Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen and At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson. Under their proposal, the tipped wage will stay at $10 through July 2026, and increase slowly every two years thereafter until it hits 75% of the minimum wage in 2034. In a sense, the proposal does increase the base wage for tipped workers as Initiative 82 required – but it does not bring it to parity with the regular minimum wage, a critical component of the initiative.

“My goal is to respect the spirit of the initiative ensuring that workers are paid fairly, receiving regular increases in wages but at a rate that’s fair and manageable,” said Henderson, who argued that cuts to the federal workforce had fundamentally changed the economic landscape that D.C. voters faced when they approved Initiative 82.

A survey conducted earlier this year by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, an industry group that has opposed Initiative 82, reported that 44% of casual restaurants said they might close this year; closures of beloved establishments like Brookland’s Finest, Sticky Rice, and Haikan seemed to sustain the apparent existential threats faced by the city’s restaurant industry. But supporters of Initiative 82 point out that most closures were also linked to other significant factors – inflation and changes in consumer habits among them – and that plenty of new and high-profile restaurants keep opening in the city.

Earlier this month Bowser hosted a roundtable discussion at Shaw’s Tavern with employers and employees who said Initiative 82 has been a disaster. But around the same time, Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal took to Facebook to say that his restaurants are “surviving and thriving” even as the city has been implementing Initiative 82. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employment at full-service restaurants in D.C. rose nearly nine percent between 2022 and 2024, the years directly after Initiative 82’s passage.

A May report from the D.C. Council’s Budget Office said that the city’s “restaurant industry remains healthy, with a growing workforce, an increasing number of restaurants, and rising average wages.” But it also said it could not predict how restaurants would respond to continuing increases in the base wage and the reduction of federal jobs in the city. 

“I don’t buy that Initiative 82 is to blame for all the challenges restaurants face,” said Allen, who just two weeks ago voted against another proposed repeal measure. “At the same time, there are significant, real headwinds facing our small, local restaurants. As elected policymakers we have to be able to step in and make modifications.”

Allen and Henderson’s proposal also requires employers to provide more detailed breakdowns of where employees’ wages come from – base wage versus tips or service fees – and calls on the city’s chief financial officer to regularly publish reports and analysis on the restaurant industry that could help lawmakers adjust policies in the future.

As many compromises do, what Allen and Henderson proposed drew criticism from expected quarters – but also from erstwhile allies.

“While I appreciate my colleagues are trying to address the pressures that restaurants are experiencing in the face of federal economics on the national level, keeping workers at a subminimum wage and overturning the will of the voters is the wrong way to accomplish this,” said Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, who voted against the proposal.

"I believe the worst outcome is this type of middle-ground option. I think we should either accept that we have a tipped wage in D.C., or just have one minimum wage. I worry about these kinds of piecemeal ideas… which would be just as bad as the status quo," said Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who despite those reservations voted with Allen and Henderson. 

Joining that trio of “yes” votes were Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, At-Large Councilmembers Anita Bonds and Kenyan McDuffie, and Ward 7 Councilmember Wendell Felder. Lewis George was accompanied by Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin, Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker, and At-Large Councilmember Robert White in opposition.

And just as the debate over Initiative 82 was fiercely divided, so too were the immediate reactions to the council’s vote. The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington said that while the measure was “not a full repeal, this outcome brings immediate relief to operators.” D.C. Jobs for Justice, a progressive group that supports the initiative, said that partially repealing it will mean that “workers will remain dependent on tips, restaurants will continue to have confusing and high service fees, and the voters’ will has been overturned again.”

The will of voters was also a point of contention during the council’s debate on Initiative 83. That ballot initiative, approved by voters last year, approved ranked-choice voting and semi-open primaries in D.C. The council gave final approval to funding the ranked-choice voting portion of the initiative.. The council will not fund semi-open primaries in next year’s budget.

"This is the clear will of the voters," said Pinto, as a majority of lawmakers rejected an attempt by Felder to slow down the rollout of the new way of voting.

In response, Lewis George asked Pinto why she was respecting the will of the voters on Initiative 83 – but not on Initiative 82. “I think when the voters passed an initiative that has to do with the electoral process, that is very different. If a ballot initiative passed that said D.C. can have no bike lanes, I think we would overturn that,” Pinto said.

The two initiatives may well be on a collision course, though: Should ranked-choice voting be used in next June’s primary elections as expected, at least four of the councilmembers who voted to partially repeal Initiative 82 will have to contend with it.

Fights over limited funds – and whether or not to raise more

The intense debate over Initiative 82 was but a portion of the council’s final deliberations on the $22 billion budget for 2026, which was ultimately approved on a 10-2 vote on Monday evening. (Lewis George and Parker both voted no, saying the budget does not enough to support working class residents.) 

When Bowser unveiled the spending plan in May, she warned lawmakers that a slowing economy and weakening revenue growth meant that belts would have to be tightened. But as the council took to scrutinizing which belts were tightened most, many lawmakers recoiled at what they said were disproportionately harsh squeezes to health programs and social benefits. They were able to reverse some of those, but others – including sweeping changes to the D.C. Healthcare Alliance, which serves more than 27,000 low-income residents – remained on the chopping block. 

Arguments over what could be salvaged continued into Monday’s debate, especially when it was revealed that, thanks to a disagreement with the city’s Chief Financial Officer, $30 million the council expected to have available wouldn’t be, imperiling additional funding for affordable housing and emergency rental assistance. 

At another point lawmakers debated moving funding from a popular program to help poor residents get free legal assistance to instead pay for childcare subsidies and a Child Tax Credit for low-income families. (“This is exactly the kind of cannibalization that we deeply oppose,” tweeted the left-leaning D.C. Fair Budget Coalition. “Don’t rob Peter to pay Paul!”) Lawmakers ultimately split the legislative baby, so to speak: Should there be additional money available after a September revenue estimate, some of the programs shorted during the budget process will get more funding.

Despite widespread concerns over cuts to certain programs, the council rejected an attempt from Councilmember Parker to raise taxes slightly on capital gains for wealthy residents. 

“The deck is stacked against working-class Washingtonians, and is making our city less livable and less safe,” said Parker when he proposed the tax hike, which he said could fund the Child Tax Credit, housing vouchers for homeless residents, and a mobile psychiatric service for kids. “This is exactly the time to close structural loopholes that advantage the wealthy in our city.”

His appeal failed to sway enough of his colleagues, though, some of whom worried that raising taxes now would make it harder to do so later – when the impact of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill became more apparent in D.C.

“To do a revenue-raiser now makes it more awkward to come back and do it in the fall,” said Frumin.