When it comes to legislation that could increase base wages for tipped employees like servers and bartenders, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is keeping his cards close to his chest.
Appearing with lead sponsor, City Councilman John Bullock, and leading opponent, City Council President Zeke Cohen, Scott declined this week to take a position on the bill that would increase base minimum wages for tipped employees from $3.63 to $15 per hour because the council has not yet given it a hearing.
The bill is backed by One Fair Wage, a progressive advocacy group that seeks to eradicate “sub-minimum” wages for tipped workers — a structure it contends is based on the legacy of slavery and disproportionately impacts people of color.
“I haven’t talked to the council president nor the [Education, Youth & Older Adults Committee] chairman about the bill,” Scott said during a news conference Wednesday promoting his Summer Youth Engagement strategy, referring to Cohen and Bullock respectively. “The City Council will do their due diligence. And when they go through their process, then it will come to me.”
One Fair Wage lobbyist Len Lucchi noted Scott’s past support for increasing the base wages of tipped employees. Lucchi said he expects Scott will “be a help” in passing the current bill.
“Mayor Scott is a supporter of the bill, and actually did one of those ‘Server for an Hour’ press events about a year and a half ago,” Lucchi claimed.
Lucchi appeared to be referring to Scott’s December 2022 appearance at Busboys & Poets, during which the mayor said tipped employees “shouldn’t have to depend on kindness from other people” to earn adequate wages.
“In the richest state in the richest country in the history of the world, our [tipped workers] shouldn’t have to depend on kindness from other people,” Scott said at the time, referring to Maryland having the highest median household income in the U.S. “We can afford to pay one fair wage and we should pay one fair wage.”
Baltimore restaurant owners are fighting back, as they believe the bill’s passage would lead to higher labor costs, forcing them to cut positions and even close their establishments. Critics also say many of the restaurants forced to close would be small businesses, unintentionally leading to the consolidation of ownership among those with deep pockets at the expense of smaller neighborhood restaurants.
Behind the scenes
Bullock is sponsoring legislation to increase tipped employees’ base wages for the second straight year. His bill last summer did not receive a hearing, and so far only five of the 15 city council members are supporting the current effort.
One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman says her discussions about the bill with undecided members like Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton have been “mostly positive.”
“We have had, really, mostly positive conversations with council members,” Jayaraman told The Baltimore Sun. “We do have majority support on the council, and we’ve met with nearly everybody.”
Bullock acknowledged having conversations with some members of the council while emphasizing the need to further meet with businesses about such a monumental change. He said “not a lot has transpired” since he introduced the bill on April 7.
“I believe we’ll get there, but I’m not saying it’s going to happen overnight,” the councilman said.
Jayaraman added that her organization was disappointed that the bill was referred to the Budget & Appropriations Committee instead of the Labor & Workforce Committee, but is confident this referral will not impact the outcome. The latter committee would perhaps be a more favorable environment for hearings, as it is chaired and vice-chaired by two of the five members who sponsored the bill: Councilman Jermaine Jones and Councilman James Torrence, respectively.
“Obviously there are co-sponsors who are members of the Labor [& Workforce] Committee … but we don’t look at that as a hurdle. It’s something that we’ll have to deal with,” Bullock said.
D.C. impacts
An April 14 Washington Post article details the impact of Initiative 82, a ballot measure D.C. voters approved in 2022 to gradually phase out the city’s tipped minimum wage of $5.35 per hour to a universal minimum wage of $17.50 by 2027.
According to the article, each $2 increase to D.C.’s tipped minimum wage under Initiative 82 led to an average payroll increase of $83,000 across three particular neighborhood restaurants. Another $2-per-hour increase to base wages for tipped employees in D.C. is scheduled to take effect in July.
As such, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington is lobbying the D.C. Council to repeal Initiative 82.
According to data from the National Restaurant Association, wage structure changes led to more than 1,800 job cuts at full-service restaurants in our nation’s capital between May 2023 and August 2024., while 74 D.C. restaurants shut their doors for good last year. A separate National Restaurant Association survey found that 40% of D.C. restaurants said they were likely to close by the end of this year.
Jayaraman argues the impact of higher base wages on restaurants is exaggerated, as she says about 20% of all restaurants close every year due to natural business cycles.
“The D.C. Restaurant Association, a fully-funded chapter of the National Restaurant Association, has been crying ever since [Initiative 82] passed. It’s what they say in every state: ‘We’re gonna have to close, we’re gonna have to close,’” Jayaraman said. “But on their website… they admit, fully admit, that in every state, all the time about 20% of restaurants close. It is the nature of the industry.”
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