Dive Brief:
- A coalition of Washington, D.C., labor groups including One Fair Wage, Unite Here, and the Service Employees International Union Local 1199 are launching a 2026 ballot initiative to raise the district’s minimum wage from $17.95 to $25 an hour and eliminate the tip credit over seven years, according to an emailed press release.
- The move comes a few months after D.C.’s city council gutted Initiative 82, the 2022 tip credit elimination law, by capping the subminimum wage for tipped workers at 75% of the district’s overall minimum wage by 2034.
- The ballot initiative would mark the third time in a decade that D.C. voters have been asked to approve the abolition of the tip credit.
Dive Insight:
The coalition supporting the measure, which is called the “DC Living Wage for All Campaign,” framed the push as a way to improve economic outcomes for workers in the District.
The ballot measure “seeks to reverse the economic harm caused when the DC Council overturned the will of the voters and reinstated the subminimum wage after the passage of Initiative 82,” according to the coalition’s press release. The coalition said the gutting of Initiative 82 pushed some workers back into poverty wages.
Opponents of Initiative 82 claimed the stepwise increases resulted in significant decreases in employment, but data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show relatively steady year-over-year employment in the district’s full-service restaurants through the period following the implementation of stepwise wage increases.
The new ballot initiative could become an important litmus test in the district’s impending mayoral race. One of the declared candidates, Janeese Lewis George, the council member for the city’s Ward 4, voted against the council’s move to limit wage increases over the summer.
Labor organizations in the district have been fairly active in the restaurant industry over the last couple of years. Unite Here organized boycotts of several restaurants the union accused of union busting. In 2024, Unite Here also successfully organized a union drive at one of José Andrés’ restaurants. That same year, Workers United, a subsidiary of SEIU, attempted to organize a number of local coffee shops, at least one of which shut down shortly after the drive went public.
Minimum wage increases have become an important political issue in a number of local campaigns, with a similar $25 wage initiative up for debate in Maryland. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani’s $30 wage target played a role in his affordability-focused campaign for mayor.
