(The Center Square) – As efforts continue to eliminate the tipped minimum wage in Illinois, one major city that made the move is throwing in the towel.
After being blamed for the closure of numerous restaurants and thousands of job losses in the service industry, the mayor of Washington D.C. is calling for the repeal of a law requiring tipped employees to be paid the full minimum wage.
“D.C. restaurants are facing a perfect storm, from increased operating and supply costs to higher rents and unique labor challenges,” Muriel Bowser said in a statement. “D.C. must rebalance our system to ensure local restaurants can survive, compete, and employ D.C. residents.”
The announcement follows a six-hour hearing before the D.C. City Council where tipped workers expressed their opposition to the law and called for a halt to additional wage increases. Proponents of the One Fair Wage law in D.C. called the effort a “success”.
Chicago began phasing out the tipped wage last year and there is talk about ending it statewide. Mayor Brandon Johnson said eliminating the tipped wage has stabilized the workforce.
“What was happening for many of those workers, particularly brown and Black women, couldn’t find some level of stability and continuity,” Johnson said on Tuesday.
The Illinois Restaurant Association opposes the law, citing fears that the increase in costs for operators would force them to raise prices and thus driving away customers, harming restaurant businesses in the long term.
Rebekah Paxton, research director of the nonprofit research group Employment Policies Institute, said what happened in D.C. should be a warning sign for Chicago and beyond.
“Chicago already has lost 5,000 jobs or more, according to the best available data,” said Paxton. “We also know that service fees have been on the rise in Chicago so there are certainly early indicators of damage already done, and so we just hope that this is a flashing red warning sign for the rest of the country, especially Illinois.”
