Massachusetts won’t be elevating pay for tipped staff to the state minimal wage after voters throughout the Commonwealth overwhelmingly denied Query 5 on Election Day.
“We just want to let everyone know we won and we won big,” stated Chris Keohan, basic guide for the Committee to Shield Ideas.
Keohan and the Committee to Shield Ideas, the opposition group, declared victory simply after 10 p.m., with outcomes exhibiting a commanding 30% margin – 65% to 35% rejecting the initiative.
Simply 14% of complete votes had been counted, per the Related Press.
One Honest Wage, the nationwide advocacy group behind the initiative, instructed the Herald simply earlier than 10:45 that it was nonetheless ready for outcomes from Springfield and different bigger cities and cities to return in earlier than conceding.
Servers and bartenders will proceed to make the subminimum for tipped staff of $6.75 an hour.
If permitted, the wage for tipped staff would have step by step elevated till it met the state minimal wage of $15 an hour in 2029. Employers would have determined whether or not their staff take part in a tip pool, that means suggestions might have been distributed to non-service staffers.
At present, tipped staff could be paid $6.75 an hour offered that their suggestions deliver them at the very least to the present minimal wage of $15 per hour.
The 65% of Bay State voters who denied the poll initiative adopted the opposition that scores of restaurateurs, bartenders and servers conveyed within the days and weeks main as much as Tuesday.
Stephen Clark, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Affiliation, soaked within the celebration at Hobson’s Bar & Kitchen in Allston.
“There’s a lot of people to thank, especially the servers and bartenders,” Clark stated. “They’re the ones who raised their hands and said ‘Absolutely not.’”
Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, each of whom labored as servers earlier than their political careers, opposed the measure.
One Honest Wage introduced the measure to the poll after garnering sufficient assist final spring.
Supporters of the measure argued the initiative would have addressed employee exploitation and wage theft.
California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Washington, D.C. have all applied One Honest Wage insurance policies.
