There are a number of questions on the Massachusetts ballot in November along with the anticipated presidential election. Some questions are surprising ones I didn’t think I would see on a ballot at all and some make sense. However, the question that catches my attention the most by far is question five.
Question five directly pertains to those who work in the full-service restaurant industry. For quite a long time, tipped positions like serving, bartending, food running and more have all been tipped positions. For most tipped positions, especially bartenders and servers, hourly pay is $6.75 in the state of MA. However, the money they make in tips usually exceeds what they make hourly. Servers and bartenders may tip out the food runner or the busser a small percentage, but other than that, they keep what they make for themselves.
Question five threatens this way of making money. If voted in favor of, tipped workers will no longer receive $6.75 an hour from employers. Instead, employers will be forced to pay at least $15 an hour to all workers. This would be a gradual increase over a five-year period, but would still end with tipped workers permanently being paid more than double what they’re making an hour as of now.
Additionally, all workers in restaurants will pool their tips together, rather than just keeping what they make. This won’t be negotiable if people vote to change the pay rate for tipped workers. No matter how much you make from waiting tables or making drinks, you won’t be able to keep your own tips anymore.
There are a number of reasons why this is a terrible idea. The first is that businesses are going to have to cough up a lot more money to pay their tipped workers more than double what they are being paid now. Running a restaurant is not cheap. Food and alcohol need to constantly be ordered, repairs happen often and a busy day full of paying customers is never guaranteed. With that being said, paying tipped workers $15 an hour as opposed to $6.75 is going to have economic consequences in the restaurant industry. The price of food and alcohol at restaurants is going to need to increase so that everyone can be paid the Jurassic increase of $15 an hour.
Additionally, many people leave a tip on their bill because they understand that’s how tipped workers make their money, but if workers are all of a sudden making more than double the money on the hour, not nearly as many people are going to feel inclined to leave a tip. It won’t feel as necessary because people will know they are being paid more than they were prior.
Not only will all of the tip money be pooled, but most likely, that tip pool won’t be very much while people understand how much the tipped workers are now making. This tip pool could also include people who don’t make tips at all, like the cooks in the back of the house.
As a server myself, I can testify that I work very hard for the cash that I walk out with at the end of the night and the same can be said for so many other tipped workers who simply want to keep the tips they make. I predict that many servers and bartenders will leave restaurants behind if the tip pool and raise in wages are voted for in November. Restaurants will find it not only more difficult to pay their employees, but will struggle to hire front-of-house employees for their business.
