The $15 question
In November, Massachusetts voters will decide whether the minimum wage for tipped employees will remain at $6.75 an hour or be bumped up to the base pay for all other workers
What’s more American than tipping? It’s standard to leave an extra few dollars for a cup of coffee, a haircut, an Uber ride, or the waiters who jot down dinner orders. Twenty percent is expected; anything below is taken as a not-so-stellar review of the service.
But an upcoming ballot question could add a modern twist to the system. In November, Massachusetts voters will decide whether the minimum wage for tipped employees will remain at $6.75 an hour or be bumped up to the base pay for all other workers: $15 (plus tips). It would happen slowly over five years, with the first increase lifting the floor to $9.60 an hour.
If it passes, the measure would also allow restaurants to pool tips with back-of-house staff, who are otherwise usually paid a flat hourly rate above $15.
Question 5 could transform the paychecks of thousands of workers and the bottom line of Bay State restaurants, from the mom-and-pop seafood shack on Cape Cod to the Applebee’s along I-93.
The Globe asked almost 50 people — servers, hosts, bartenders, cooks, restaurateurs, attorneys, and advocates — whether a $15 tipped minimum wage is right for Massachusetts, its food scene, and its workforce. These are their answers.
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Some restaurant workers believe paying a $15 minimum wage should be a given. More and more customers are put off by tipping or are already leaving less on the table in our roller-coaster economy. A higher hourly rate may create stability for employees, especially those working at cheaper and less-trafficked establishments outside of cities. And some say it would make it easier to restaurants to open for longer hours.
Not all restaurants say they can make the math work. Places that implemented higher tipped wages — Seattle and Washington, D.C., for example — have not seen their dining landscape implode, but are watching labor costs rise. The “No” camp in Massachusetts found that businesses could pay an additional $18,000 in payroll per employee at the $15 rate, if the measure is enacted. In Maine, a bipartisan coalition in the Legislature restored the state’s tip credit, just one year it was eliminated in a similar ballot measure.
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Those concerns could be overblown. Even though the tipped minimum is $6.75, the average tipped employee in the state earns around $11 an hour as a base, according to new research out of University of Massachusetts Amherst. And pay issues among workers — many of whom are women, people of color, or immigrants — still run rampant.
In 2023, restaurant employees lodged 941 workplace complaints with the state, the most of any industry. Three-fourths of them had to do with wage theft, meaning workers were either underpaid or not paid out properly for tips. Should Question 5 pass, there is scant evidence that employees will earn less, or that the burden on restaurants will increase as dramatically as they say, the UMass Amherst research shows.
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But employees are still wary. Nine in 10 servers and bartenders fear that raising the $6.75 tipped minimum wage will push customers to tip less, according to a survey from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, a trade group that opposes the measure. Others say it’ll botch the quality of service. Many are reluctant, too, to share earnings with the back-of-house employees, who are often paid $20 an hour or more.
The question would not require tips be shared with all employees equally, but would allow workers who do not interact with customers directly to reap the benefits of tips.
Audio: Kate Walsh, Server at Burtons Grill & Bar in Burlington
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Audio: Randall Farrar, Bartender at the Kenmore in Boston
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Now with less than a month until Election Day, the two warring sides have spent more than a million dollars on Question 5. Supporters insist that the increased pay rate — and the ability to pool tips with back-of-house workers — would help people on the ground, especially servers who scarcely earn good tips, low-wage line cooks, and workers with less experience. Or, as opponents say, it could change tipping forever.
Design and development by Ryan Huddle. Additional development by Daigo Fujiwara-Smith. Quality assurance by Nalini Dokula.