We’ve all been to restaurants or cafes where the service is less than stellar for one reason or another. Maybe they don’t have enough wait staff, or someone’s having a bad day.

According to recent reports, Millennials, those aged 18-35, although I think the demographic actually starts closer to 21, don’t give ANY tip in about 10% of the cases.

Really? They stiff the server?

What they might not realize is that wait staff usually does not make Minimum Wage. In DC, the minimum wage is $12.50/hour and wait staff earn only $3.33/hour. The rest must be made up by tips or by their employer.

Alright, so it’s not fantastic service—tip 15% rather than 20%. I understand if it’s at a walk-up counter, you may not want to tip—I mean, you tip at the Starbucks counter, but not at Burger King…! It gets a little murky. Yet, if a server is bringing you food or drinks to your table, either you need to be tipping, or you need to be heading to 7-Eleven. Just my 2 cents, because apparently, few Millennials are offering their 2 cents….

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Today, voters in Washington, DC, face off on Initiative 77 which would eliminate the tipped minimum wage. Instead of a lower rate being paid to servers, bartenders and bussers, they would all be raised to the actual minimum wage.

Which means that either restaurants will go out of business by needing to compensate their employees by approximately another 75%, or that a service fee of sorts would be added to patrons’ checks, resulting in no one wishing to tip, and thereby dropping all servers back to flat minimum wage. Not exactly what wait staff had in mind. Besides the fact that they already make at least minimum wage no matter what.

So what’s to benefit from even discussing Initiative 77? Are there any pluses?

A couple, not enough to make it worthwhile, in my opinion. There’s the issue of wait staff working for unscrupulous employers who do not make up the gap if they are earning less than minimum wage. Then there’s the possibility of sexual harassment and tips being offered only if a server agrees to date a customer, etc.

Okay, I get it. No-goodniks come on either side of the fence. But that comes with the territory. Nobody should have to take abuse, however, in the service industry, there will be ups and downs.

I believe that with the current system, there will be the opportunity for hard workers to earn even more and for all of us to feel good about rewarding enthusiastic servers. Many servers in recent days have been wearing badges, “Just Vote NO”. I would tend to agree that they know what would be best in their industry.

Should be interesting to see how it will go…..

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