Dining in Washington, D.C., could get more expensive as new service fees have recently been implemented in the nation’s capital.
As of this month, Initiative 82 requires Washington restaurant owners to instate an added 3.5% service fee on restaurant checks, causing customers to pay extra for eating out, Axios reported. The latest fee charge took effect July 1.
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Washington voters passed the initiative last November, approving a ballot measure that effectively changes the way the city's tipped restaurant employees get paid.
The enacted initiative, designed to match the minimum wage for tipped workers to that of nontipped workers by 2027, first raised the minimum wage for tipped employees from $5.35 per hour to $6 an hour in May. The new amount is now $8 an hour before tips.
If tipped employees made less than the standard minimum wage of $17 an hour, employers would make up the difference. However, the recent price hikes, and subsequent ones, would force business owners to charge customers extra in the coming months and years.
Jason Berry, co-founder of Knead Hospitality + Design, said he wishes Washington residents could "see the impact of their decision" in voting overwhelmingly for the passage of the initiative.
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“You voted for this. Here's what it costs to do it. You're going to pay for it. I'm not because you know what? I don't want to go out of business. And if I start taking 3% away from my sales everywhere I go, I'm not going to make it,” Berry said.
The D.C. Council passed emergency legislation in January to postpone Initiative 82 from being implemented until May, giving food establishments time to prepare for the price increases. In June, the council proposed a bill to accelerate the initiative's $17 goal for tipped employees by 2025.