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t-rexcellent t1_ja9bucm wrote

Reply to comment by ksixnine in What's your experience with Initiative 82? by UncleLongHair0

Well, they might enjoy working in a restaurant more than working at a grocery store, even if the pay was identical. But I think many restaurants will still pay better and hire more professional staff than a convenience store or a minimum wage employer. And I think many patrons will still continue to tip. Keep in mind that there's nothing forcing restaurants to charge a service fee -- that's just something they came up with during the pandemic (which was justified, I know) similarly to how airlines realized they could charge you for carry on bags. Lots of restaurants won't do it (and many who do it now may cave under pressure to get rid of their fees).

Of course ultimately the voters have set the law and we'll just have to see what happens!

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ksixnine t1_ja9fol4 wrote

Restaurants have a smaller margin than convenience stores, and are more than happy to send employees home if service is slow - grocers, not so much based on how labor is spread out due to products arriving ~ you can’t be guaranteed 30+ hrs a week in a restaurant, but you can be at Trader Joe’s.

And they do have an incentive: with I•82 on the horizon there isn’t a smart restaurant that doesn’t want to get ahead of the curve now vs five years down the road.

Service fees for DC are mostly pandemic related; however, California/ Wash St/ Nevada.. have been utilizing this practice for quite a while, thus I don’t see too many DC establishments getting rid of it - especially if this is how they are making their ends meet.

Ultimately, yes, DC voters put this into motion, because they didn’t understand the tip-credit.

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