DC voters will not decide whether to raise the minimum wage to $25 per hour and eliminate the tipped wage this November. Advocates for the measure are pushing back plans for the ballot initiative, Axios first reported. But the issue is far from over. One Fair Wage, the New York-based non-profit that’s spearheaded the initiative, is proceeding with plans to get the $25 minimum wage proposal on DC’s ballot in next year’s special election.
One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman says the biggest reason for the delay was a lawsuit filed by DC bar owner John Guggenmos against the DC Board of Elections this spring, claiming that the board did not follow proper procedure and that the initiative’s language was misleading. A DC Superior Court judge ultimately ruled against Guggenmos, but Jayaraman says that left less than a week for the organization to collect the required signatures to get on November’s ballot.
“The opposition did what they always do every single time, which is they filed some frivolous charges about the Board of Elections process to try to delay us being on the ballot,” Jayaraman says. “We decided that we wanted to take not six days, but have the full time that were allocated by law.”
Jayaraman says they’ll begin collecting signatures this month. She believes the turnout will actually be higher for the special election because DC won’t have a very competitive election this fall, but two council seats will be up for grabs next year.
Meanwhile, Andrew Kline of Vertias Law Firm, which represented Guggenmos, says they’ve filed an appeal. Kline says they found the title of the initiative—”District of Columbia Living Wage for All Amendment Act of 2026″—misleading in that it referred to a “living wage” rather than the “minimum wage.” They also claimed the initiative’s summary statement was prejudicial and took issue with some of the language around how service charges can be used. The lawsuit also argued that the Board of Elections did not allow for a proper public process in moving the initiative forward.
Kline, who also works with the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, saw it as a positive for the restaurant industry that the the initiative will be moving forward later rather than sooner. Many DC operators have been against the measure, fearing the spike in labor costs could cause many restaurants to close or cut staff and their hours.
“Anything we can do to give our members and the restaurant industry an opportunity to survive, we’re happy with,” Kline says. “And if it takes longer, then that’s a period of time during which restaurants can be profitable and survive, and lots of things can happen.”
Initiative 87 proposed to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour by 2029 and phase out the tipped wage by 2031. Currently, the minimum wage in DC is $18.40 an hour, and the tipped wage is $10.30. (Employers are required to make up the difference between the tipped wage and full minimum wage if gratuities don’t cover it.)
There have been two past ballot initiatives in DC aimed at phasing out the tipped minimum wage. Initiative 77, passed in 2018, was ultimately overturned by the DC Council. Then came Initiative 82, which passed with more than 70 percent of the vote. The DC Council voted to reform the law last summer by slowing down and ultimately capping increases to the tipped minimum wage.
RAMW put out a press release last week noting a sharp decline in restaurant closures so far this year compared to last year’s record number. The group credited reforms to the Council’s reforms of Initiative 82 for “relieving pressure” on local operators who faced rising labor costs.
Jayaraman counters that there’s been consistent restaurant industry growth over the last few years. She cites a report last year from DC’s own Budget Director that found the restaurant industry “remains healthy” with a growing workforce, increasing number of restaurants, and rising average wages. “You can point to all the anecdotal information you want to point to it. The truth is restaurants close every year, but overall growth in the industry has continued to be the same every year,” Jayaraman says.
Jayaraman says she’s optimistic that the latest initiative will similarly pass overwhelmingly—and that the next DC Council will not intervene next time. “What’s different this time is we have a new mayor that was actually the champion of our issue the whole time—a former tipped worker—and new council members who were also champions of our issue all along.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
