Montgomery County is considering increasing the tipped minimum wage for servers.
The minimum wage for servers is $4 per hour, with the expectation tips will make up the rest of the standard minimum wage. If a server doesn’t average that minimum wage, the restaurant has to pay them the difference.
Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando is cosponsoring a bill to raise the tipped minimum wage from $4 to $6 next year and increase it another $2 every year for the next five years.
“No one should have to go hungry or miss rent because they had a bad night in tips,” he said. “It’s unconscionable.”
“It’s about providing families sustaining wages,” organizer Jibran Eubanks said. “It’s about the fact that one job should be enough.”
The Restaurant Association of Maryland strongly opposes raising the tipped minimum wage and believes servers might actually make less money.
“Tipped employees are among the highest earners in full-service restaurants, earning a median of $27 per hour including tips,” the organization said in a statement. “Restaurants would be forced to impose a service charge on customer checks to cover the substantially higher labor costs. Customers are unlikely to tip on top of service charges.”
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In Washington, D.C., where residents voted to raise the tipped minimum wage last year, many restaurants are tacking on service fees as the cost of business increased, said Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington President and CEO Shawn Townsend.
“When you add on the supply chain issues, inflation, rent these days, it is just an additional squeeze on the business owner,” he said.
Last month, D.C.’s attorney general said he’s been getting hundreds of questions about restaurant fees. He issued new guidance to businesses saying they must clearly disclose what the fee is for.
“Some would say there’s been a lot of confusion in the District of Columbia,” Townsend said.
Jawando is confident his bill will pass.
“You can pay people a fair wage and still have a thriving restaurant industry,” he said.
The Montgomery County Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the bill next month.
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