Ready to pay a 20% service charge, on top of your food bill, and before any “tip” given to good service by wait staff, at a Rockville-area restaurant (assuming some remain at the stagnant Rockville Town Center property)?
How about an additional 15% service charge, on top of the food bill, at Ruth’s Chris Steak House on Wisconsin Ave in Bethesda? Let’s see… some Caesar Salad ($14), a ribeye steak at $69, maybe a king salmon and shrimp for your date ($43). Can’t forget a bottle of Merlot ($80).
Now tack on an additional $31 for the privilege of simply dining out in MoCo under faux “socialist” County Exec Marc Elrich (Democrat, Takoma Park). Will you be tipping after all that? After an additional $31?
These scenarios are guaranteed to occur in the next few years unless the restaurant industry – and voters and residents (and yes – you too Bethesda Chamber of Commerce) speak up and speak out. Now.
How do we know? Because economic ignoramus (and proud college loan repayment skipper) Will Jawando is pushing for this kind of wage policy in Montgomery County (it failed in committee statewide in Annapolis). And of comrade CM Mink is also behind the proposed bill.
And meanwhile, the ramifications of this exact thing are playing out in the District of Columbia, wherein the “sub-minimum tipped wage” (to borrow from the nomenclature of the radical left activist) was scrapped recently because of “Initiative 82”. In its place, a one-size-fits-all restaurant minimum wage was instituted, no exceptions for tipped work at a restaurant or bar. Received poor service? Got awesome service? It doesn’t matter under this policy. “Tips” will be a thing of the past for many workers and restaurants and eateries will have to eat tremendous new overhead costs, which they simply cannot do – meaning they’ll hit you with a fee, reduce server jobs or close up altogether.
Gee – so what are the economic consequences of such a dumb decision on labor costs and tipping in an industry with low gross margins and high overhead that is headed higher? Let’s check in with Eric Flack and Ruth Morton of WUSA-9 TV in DC:
Now restaurant owners tell WUSA9 that your bill is about to go up even more.
I think every restaurant in D.C. will have a 20% service charge,” said Geoff Tracy, owner of Chef Geoff’s which has two D.C. locations. Geoff was referring to how restaurant owners will have to respond when the District meets the ultimate requirement of Initiative 82, which is for all tipped restaurant industry workers to make $18 an hour by 2027.
Get ready to pay more of a basic night out. A lot more. But will you? With inflation still raging and Maryland’s gas tax being hiked yearly by Maryland Democrats in the state house? Nah. You can cook up a beautiful steak at home with some friends and family for far less then $250 plus a “council fee”.
I can assure you that with tip credit gone, we are faced with two options,” Ilhan [owner of Brasserie Liberte in Georgetown] wrote in an email. “Either raise the prices or implement a service charge. Raising the prices is not a good option, our customers do not have that extra change in their pockets to pay more, no one will pay $30.00 for a burger, for example.
At least service charge gives an option (not an ideal one) to our customers, not to leave any additional tip if they choose not to, language gives them the cover. This way they do not get to pay more than before the initiative.
But Councilmembers and champagne socialists like Mink and Jawando simply do not care. There is evidence right next door, right across an imaginary border in Chevy Chase, that this policy stinks for waiters, consumers and will affect business owners. It doesn’t matter. Their response is simply to “stagger” the min wage hikes for longer across the time horizon. They see the frog boiling the next pot over, they just want to boil their frog in MoCo a little slower.
It is economic madness like this that is making MoCo more and more stagnant and the economy more and more stunted and depressed compared to VA and other peers. It also just makes the County a bit more unenjoyable, year after year. Bethesda is known for restaurants and bars and eateries… but the foot traffic and dining in will suffer under this proposed wage law. Why dine out? You’ll get crushed by high fees and poor service.
Why and how do such politicians get elected into office? A clean slate is badly needed.
More to come.
