DC Council officially repeals minimum-wage hike for tipped workers

[turbinetree]

Source: The Hill

BY CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO - 10/16/18 05:12 PM EDT

The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to repeal a ballot measure which would have required tipped workers to be paid a full minimum wage.

The vote repealed Initiative 77, which was approved by 55 percent of voters in June.

The D.C. Council voted 8 - 5 for the repeal, the same margin as the first vote in the process.

The bill would have ended a system that allows employers to pay as low as $3.89 hourly to tipped workers as long as customer gratuities add up to the minimum wage.

The initiative would also have gradually increased that wage to meet the standard minimum wage in 2026, which is expected to be $15 by 2020 in DC.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/411710-dc-council-officially-repeals-minimum-wage-hike-for-tipped-workers

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So let me get this straight 55% of the voters wanted the servers to get a minimum wage.....................voters said yes, the DC Council, just said no............................this is just fucked up.................

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Yeah, we had the same thing in MO (STL and KCMO), min. wages were increased in ...

the KC and STL cities, the state republicans cut it back to the original rate. Disgusting.

[turbinetree]

2. Third World.........................or Fourth World

this is just messed up..................I want to know who is going to run against those 8 members on the council ............they should not have job ...................unless they go wait on tables...................

[cloudythescribbler]

3. Just as the faction of "Democrats" who joined w/GOP in NY State got booted, so those 8 should be

Such events -- one of the very reasons for having citizens' initiative ballot measures in every jurisdiction, ESPECIALLY blue and "purple" ones -- provide a window into politicians who are in office thwarting the public's will, almost invariably in a RightWing direction. And those politicians should be primaried if Democrats (and it is unfortunate that the article doesn't even NAME the eight, or which districts they represent -- perhaps someone could do so on this thread) and booted out like almost all the "independent" Democrats in NY State did, who had at one time joined with Republicans to support their control of the state senate. 6 out of eight were defeated in their primaries. This sort of thing doesn't just impact the one or several issues at stake -- it puts fear of popular will in the hearts of politicians in a good way.

The article notes that this is NOT the first time the DC City Council has overturned a popularly passed ballot measure. Rather it was "the fifth voter initiative overturned by the D.C. Council" -- so this sort of grassroots mobilization in DC is long overdue. (So is statehood, which was tried in Congress half-heartedly in the early (93-4) Clinton years unsuccessfully in Congress, and to my knowledge not even attempted in the early years, on the general floor of Congress, in the early Obama years (09-10). So popular pressure needs to assure democracy at all levels, and the many underground mechanisms that repress such popular mobilization need to be openly exposed explicitly and defied en masse

[YOHABLO]

4. It's the dirty little secret of restaurateurs. I would think in D.C. they carry a lot of weight.

[pennylane100]

5. The tipped workers need to form a union.

They should organize and use boycotts, etc. to make these council members regret their vote. They should also find out ways to target any business interests of the members. They should have to eat their words.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. There's more to this than meets the eye.

Last edited Wed Oct 17, 2018, 11:39 AM - Edit history (1)

1) The Hill is not a local newspaper. It covers the things that go on in Congress, but it is not set up to cover the things that go on in DC.

2) I live near DC but I do not live in DC. All I know is what I read in the papers.

3) There was not universal support for the new law among waitstaff who work for tips. Had the law gone into effect, some* waitstaff would have ended up making less money than they do now.

4) Obviously, the opposite condition is true for other waitstaff.

5) If you want to know more about this, you'll have to read about the proposed (and now nixed) law in the local papers.

6) Those newspapers are the Washington Post, and, especially, the Washington City Paper and the Washington Blade. The Washington Blade will emphasize the viewpoint of the waitstaff at gay-oriented establishments. Those three newspapers, and particularly the latter two, are much closer to the ground on this than The Hill ever will be.

7) I'm just sayin'.

* edited from "many"

[clementine613]

7. Damn Rethugs.... shafting the poor again and again and again.

n/t

[Igel]

8. Here's the link to the members of the DC Council.

http://dccouncil.us/councilmembers/

I've limited connectivity, checked 4 or 5. One Independent out of those, the rest (D). Not Congress. Local elected folk.

[IronLionZion]

11. This is why local elections matter

some of these folks are non-partisan but for many of the Dems the real election was in the Dem primary where there is often less turnout or interest. That would be the place to challenge incumbents and get enough voters to show up.

[Progressive Jones]

9. This has GOP scum written all over it. nt

[IronLionZion]

10. More Info on this

http://dcist.com/2018/10/yep_they_did_itdc_council_repeals_i.php

Yep, They Did It—D.C. Council Repeals Initiative 77

"I want to be clear that today we are overturning the will of the voters," Silverman said. "We are not protecting some of our residents who are most vulnerable to not getting paid fairly, and that’s what it is."

This is the first time the D.C. Council has overturned a ballot initiative since 2001, when it repealed a term limit law.

The people voted for term limits and higher wages for the lowest paid people in the city, and these were the only things the council members decided was worth overturning. Yes, the council is almost entirely Dem, but this kind of stuff is what turns people off from politics. The special interests with money lobbied hard to get their way, and plenty of workers who don't have money or influence were ignored.

And for those who don't live here, this issue was divided among restaurant workers also. Workers in lower income neighborhoods, immigrants, minorities, and lower positions (dishwasher, busboy, etc.) wanted higher minimum wage. Workers in wealthy neighborhoods, whites, and front of house positions (server, bartender, etc) were against raising the minimum wage because they got more in tips. Managers and owners were uniformly against raising the minimum wage regardless of neighborhood or income level.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. Oh, DCist.com is running again. I hadn't thought of that in a while. Thanks. NT

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. LGBT tipped workers hail D.C. Council repeal of Initiative 77

Not every last one of them, of course.

October 3, 2018 at 8:04 pm EDT | by Lou Chibbaro Jr.

LGBT tipped workers hail D.C. Council repeal of Initiative 77

LGBT tipped workers at the city’s restaurants, bars, and nightclubs joined their straight colleagues on Tuesday in celebrating a vote by the D.C. City Council to repeal an initiative passed by voters in June to end the so-called tipped wage system. ... In its first of two required readings, the Council voted 8 to 5 to approve a bill calling for repealing Initiative 77, which voters passed by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent despite vocal opposition by what appeared to be a large majority of tipped workers.

Council observers expect the Council to give final approval to the repeal bill later this month. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has said she would sign a repeal bill. ... Had it become law, Initiative 77 would require restaurants, bars and other employers of tipped workers to pay those workers the city’s full minimum wage, which is currently $13.25 per hour and which will increase to $15 per hour in 2020. The minimum wage for tipped workers is currently $3.89 per hour.

Under the city’s tipped wage law, employers in the city’s highly competitive hospitality industry are allowed to pay tipped workers a lower minimum wage on grounds that the workers make more than the city’s full minimum wage in tips. The law requires employers to pay the difference if workers’ tips fall short of the full minimum wage.
....

Lou Chibbaro Jr. has reported on the LGBT civil rights movement and the LGBT community for more than 30 years, beginning as a freelance writer and later as a staff reporter and currently as Senior News Reporter for the Washington Blade. He has chronicled LGBT-related developments as they have touched on a wide range of social, religious, and governmental institutions, including the White House, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the military, local and national law enforcement agencies and the Catholic Church. Chibbaro has reported on LGBT issues and LGBT participation in local and national elections since 1976. He has covered the AIDS epidemic since it first surfaced in the early 1980s. Follow Lou