D.C. Council votes to slow wage hourly increases for tipped restaurant servers

The D.C. Council voted Monday night to slow and reduce periodic wage increases for tipped workers, which industry insiders blame for driving a record number of restaurant closures.

Under a ballot measure that voters approved by a wide margin, the hourly minimum wage for servers before tips nearly doubled from $5.35 in 2022 to $10 in 2023.

Known as Initiative 82, the law included regular increases that would have doubled it again to match the wage floor for non-tipped hourly workers – currently $17.95 and rising — by 2027.

On Monday, the Council voted 7-5 to amend the law, stretching out smaller increases over a decade and capping them at 75% of the non-tipped minimum by 2034.

Council member Christina Henderson, the budget amendment’s co-sponsor, said it offers “regular increases … paced at a rate that is fair and manageable” in response to increased financial pressures on businesses in recent years.

“Under this model, we would still have one of the highest tipped minimum wages in the country,” said Ms. Henderson, at-large independent.

The amended law will also require transparent pay stubs and financial reviews to track the effects on eateries and workers.

D.C. Council member Charles Allen, who co-sponsored the amendment with Ms. Henderson, said it is a compromise recognizing that steep increases would hurt restaurants now.

“While it slows the implementation down, it continues to close the gap between the tipped minimum wage and the full minimum wage,” said Mr. Allen, Ward 6 Democrat.]

In the meantime, the amendment freezes the tipped minimum wage at $10 per hour until next year. That confirms an earlier council vote to delay an increase to $12, originally scheduled to start last month.

“This approach ensures that tipped employees’ wages rise annually and keep pace with inflation, while also preventing restaurants’ operational costs from rising at an unsustainable rate due to legislative mandates,” the amendment said.

During the brief debate, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson repeatedly admonished protesters to stop interrupting council members who backed the amendment.

He finally cleared them out of the chamber during the vote.

The Fair Price Fair Wage Coalition condemned the voting outcome.

“This amendment is an overturn of the will of the voters and keeps tipped workers under the unfair tipped wage system,” the group said in a statement. “Workers will remain overly dependent on tips, restaurants will continue to have confusing and high service fees, and the voters’ will have been overturned once again.”

The tipped wage initiative is one of several changes to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed 2026 budget that the Democrat-controlled council has debated in recent weeks.

On July 14, city lawmakers voted 7-5 to remove a proposal by Ms. Bowser to repeal Initiative 82 outright and revert to an inflation-adjusted minimum of $5.95 an hour before tips.

Hundreds of restaurateurs supported the Democratic mayor’s plan to repeal the law.

The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, a leading opponent of Initiative 82, recently reported that D.C. eateries are shuttering at a record pace of two per week in 2025.

According to the report, 53 restaurants have closed this year, nearly double the 28 that folded during the same period in 2024. That puts the nation’s capital on pace to surpass 100 closures by the end of 2025, breaking last year’s record of 73.

Several council members have objected to subverting the popular vote that authorized the wage hikes, however.

Some of them reiterated those concerns on Monday.

They said the amendment contradicts Initiative 82’s abolition of the tax credit that allows employers to pay tipped workers less than non-tipped hourly workers on the assumption that they will make up the difference in gratuities.

“My colleagues today are proposing that we keep these workers at a subminimum wage based on biased data from the restaurant lobby,” said Council member Brianne Nadeau, Ward 1 Democrat.

She criticized the restaurant association’s report for including eateries that closed for reasons unrelated to the tipped wage law.

Council member Brooke Pinto, a Ward 2 Democrat who represents such popular night-spot neighborhoods as Dupont Circle and Logan Circle, voted for the amendment but criticized it for offering an unsatisfactory middle ground.

“I continue to believe that the worst outcome is this type of middle ground option,” Ms. Pinto said. “I think we should either accept that we have a tipped minimum wage in D.C, which is a different number, or just have one minimum wage.”

In contrast, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington applauded the vote.

“We thank the DC Council for voting to restore the tipped credit and for acknowledging the need to bring greater balance to a policy that has contributed to record closures and job losses,” the association said in a statement. “The compromise reached provides operators with more clarity and a stronger foundation to plan for the future.”