The District of Columbia is one of the most liberal places in the country. But its elected officials—all Democrats or left-of-center independents—have lined up against a ballot measure that would raise the base wage for workers who rely on tips by 200%. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and most members of the council are opposed to the measure, known as Initiative 77. […]

Detroit’s burgeoning restaurant scene has been the subject of national attention. But a proposed ballot measure to raise the base for restaurant servers by more than 200 percent threatens to halt to the restaurant industry’s growth in Detroit and beyond. Start with some background: Michigan’s minimum wage was raised to $9.25 in four steps starting in 2015, as part of a bipartisan deal between Republicans and […]

School’s almost out, and the only thing hotter than the weather is parents’ desire to get their teens out of the house and into the summer workforce. This summer, that’ll be easier than usual; the teen unemployment rate has dipped below 13 percent — a level not seen since the Clinton years. But it’s not all good news. Despite the low youth unemployment rate, the number […]

It’s déjà vu all over again. Less than four years after Gov. Andrew Cuomo convened a wage board to study tipped-employee pay, the Labor Department will hold a series of hearings to decide whether New York should follow seven other states and eliminate the tipping system entirely. The first hearing, on Friday at SUNY-Farmingdale, will pit service-industry staff who value their tip income against labor advocates who prefer […]

North Dakota's secretary of state recently approved for signature collection a ballot initiative that would raise the state's minimum wage to $15 by 2021. To get a sense of how radical that is, that's a 107 percent increase over the state's current minimum wage--at a phase--in that would happen even faster than scheduled increases in California or New York. Before voters rush to endorse this […]

In his inaugural address, Gov. Phil Murphy told his colleagues in the legislature, “Send me the bills … to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” promising a stronger, fairer economy as a result. On January 25, Senator Troy Singleton gave Murphy what he wanted in S1142, the first step to reaching a $15 minimum wage. Unfortunately, raising New Jersey’s minimum wage will likely […]