Voters in Massachusetts battered down a proposal that would have raised the minimum wage of tipped workers to match that of nontipped workers.
Question 5 was failing 64%-36% around the time when the Associated Press called the contest at 12:30 a.m. Eastern time with over 70% of the ballots counted.
The provision would have increased the wages of tipped wages gradually, by 2029, to match the Bay State’s normal minimum wage of $15. The initiative would have still allowed for those workers to be tipped on top of their base salary. The current base salary for tipped workers is $6.75.
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Opponents of the measure successfully argued that raising the cost burden for restaurant and bar owners would make those businesses more difficult to operate. Those businesses might also have to add service fees in order to make up for the losses, meaning that servers could end up earning less in tips.
Still, proponents of Question 5 argued that tipped workers don’t always earn enough in tips to make up the gap between base pay and minimum wage and that, given the cost of living, an increase in wages is only fair.
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Some $1.5 million in donations opposing the measure came from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and individual restaurant owners. The overwhelming majority of the about $1 million in funding supporting the measure came from the liberal group One Fair Wage, which promotes minimum wage increases.
Washington, D.C., passed a similar measure in 2022. In that case, employers in Washington will be required to pay $16.10 base wages per hour to tipped employees by 2027, which is the minimum wage for non-tipped employees.