The Washington, D.C., city council convened on Wednesday to discuss the FY 2026 budget. One of the topics on the council's agenda was reviewing proposals to repeal Initiative 82, the District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act of 2022, which has hurt the district's restaurant industry and workers since its enactment.
Initiative 82 passed with 132,925 votes in favor—nearly three-quarters of the electorate—in November 2022. Before the passage of the initiative, all workers in the district, including tipped workers, were entitled to a minimum wage of $15.20 per hour. Employers of tipped workers, however, were allowed to credit their employees' tips toward satisfying this requirement, and were required to provide their workers with a significantly lower mandatory base pay of $5.05 per hour. The initiative proposed to increase the mandatory base pay to tipped workers until it equaled the district's minimum wage, permanently phasing out the tip credit.
On May 1, 2023, the Tip Credit Elimination Act increased mandatory base pay to $6 per hour. That figure increased to $8 per hour in July 2023 and to $10 per hour in July 2024. The act prescribed a July 2025 increase to $12 per hour, but on June 3, the city council voted to pause this increase until October. Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie (I–At large) said he introduced the pause out of concern for how the act has impacted the restaurant industry, reports NBC 4 Washington. Councilmember Robert C. White Jr. (D–At Large) voted in support of the pause after speaking to 150 restaurant workers who told him that "[their] take-home pay has decreased," according to The Washington Post.
