Raising the Tipped Minimum Wage Won’t Harm the Restaurant Industry

Photograph Source: Canadian2006 – CC BY-SA 4.0

This week, the D.C. Council voted to pause a wage increase related to Initiative 82, the 2022 ballot measure that incrementally raises the tipped wage. The law, which was passed with 74 percent of the vote, will eventually bring tipped workers’ wages up to the minimum wage.

The initiative has been under renewed scrutiny from some lawmakers and Mayor Muriel Bowser, who proposed last week in her 2026 budget to repeal the law entirely.