ksixnine t1_ja94x41 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 7:30 PM

Reply to comment by t-rexcellent in What's your experience with Initiative 82? by UncleLongHair0

There’s no incentive for anyone to work in many restaurants vs a grocery store or a 7/11, just none - for that matter, there will be a dearth of talent at lower end establishments because they are now working for a paycheck which is less that what they would’ve earned otherwise.

The lack of using the tip-credit, in conjunction with restaurants paying for healthcare and increasing wages (with or without inflation adding to the issue) is going to clamp down on the mom & pop places, and give way for corporate backed companies to fill the vacancies.

t-rexcellent t1_ja9bucm wrote on February 27, 2023 at 8:14 PM

Well, they might enjoy working in a restaurant more than working at a grocery store, even if the pay was identical. But I think many restaurants will still pay better and hire more professional staff than a convenience store or a minimum wage employer. And I think many patrons will still continue to tip. Keep in mind that there's nothing forcing restaurants to charge a service fee -- that's just something they came up with during the pandemic (which was justified, I know) similarly to how airlines realized they could charge you for carry on bags. Lots of restaurants won't do it (and many who do it now may cave under pressure to get rid of their fees).

Of course ultimately the voters have set the law and we'll just have to see what happens!

ksixnine t1_ja9fol4 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 8:38 PM

Restaurants have a smaller margin than convenience stores, and are more than happy to send employees home if service is slow - grocers, not so much based on how labor is spread out due to products arriving ~ you can’t be guaranteed 30+ hrs a week in a restaurant, but you can be at Trader Joe’s.

And they do have an incentive: with I•82 on the horizon there isn’t a smart restaurant that doesn’t want to get ahead of the curve now vs five years down the road.

Service fees for DC are mostly pandemic related; however, California/ Wash St/ Nevada.. have been utilizing this practice for quite a while, thus I don’t see too many DC establishments getting rid of it - especially if this is how they are making their ends meet.

Ultimately, yes, DC voters put this into motion, because they didn’t understand the tip-credit.