On November 8, 2022, voters in Washington, D.C. chose to
eliminate the lower minimum wage—called the tipped minimum
wage or tip credit rate—for tipped workers by approving
ballot Initiative 82.
The tipped minimum wage allows establishments whose customers
pay partially via tips, such as restaurants, salons, parking
facilities, etc., to pay employees a sub-minimum wage of $5.35 per
hour, as long as employees make up the rest of the full minimum
wage, currently $16.10 per hour, in tips. If they do not make up
the rest in tips, the establishment must “true them up”
to make up the difference.
The passage of Initiative 82 means that, assuming the D.C.
counsel does not overturn it (as it did in 2018, although this is
not likely to happen again) and assuming it makes it through the
30-day congressional review period, D.C. tipped establishments will
have a phase-in period to slowly bring their employees up to the
full minimum wage by 2027. As it currently stands, the
