Fresh off of voting for one ballot initiative, D.C. residents may have to prepare for another — and soon.
A New York-based advocacy group says it will be submitting more than 40,000 signatures from D.C. voters next week to place a measure on the ballot that would increase the city’s minimum wage to $25 by 2029 and gradually phase out the tipped wage that’s paid to restaurant workers by two years after that.
If the D.C. Board of Elections validates the signatures, the measure — known formally as Initiative 87 — would likely be put to voters sometime next spring, aligned to a special election that will be held to fill a vacant at-large seat on the D.C. Council and potentially the Ward 4 council seat that Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George will vacate in January.
The initiative aligns with broader efforts across the country to replace minimum wages with what proponents call a living wage, or pay that allows workers to afford the basics of living where they do. The minimum wage in D.C. is currently $18.40 and goes up every year in proportion to increases in the prices of consumer goods. But according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a single adult has to make $26.72 an hour to afford living in the city.
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“The price of everything has gone up,” said Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage, which is backing living wage efforts in D.C. and elsewhere. “A living wage for all is the new ‘Fight for $15.’ Right now, that means a floor of $25.”
Jayaraman was referencing the last national push for a higher minimum wage of $15 that started more than a decade ago. D.C. reached $15 in 2020, four years after Mayor Muriel Bowser signed legislation gradually increasing the minimum wage — itself a response to a threat of a ballot initiative from One Fair Wage.
One Fair Wage is pushing for a similar ballot initiative in Oakland, California, but for a $30 minimum wage. Lawmakers in Maryland considered but did not pass a bill this year to raise the state’s minimum wage to $25, and a bill to do so on the national level by 2032 was introduced by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) earlier this year, with a companion bill in the House.
“This was a cost of living election,” said Jayaraman. “People are fucking angry about the cost of living in America.”
The initiative would also revive the on-again, off-again fight over the tipped wage in D.C., which has been the topic of two ballot initiatives over the last decade — one of which the D.C. Council fully repealed, the other that it partly repealed.
Traditionally, workers at bars, restaurants, parking garages and nail salons were paid a subminimum wage and collected tips on top of that. Currently, the tipped wage their employer pays in D.C. is $10.30. If tips don’t get a worker to the prevailing wage of $18.40 an hour, their employer has to make up the difference.
Advocates like Jayaraman have long pushed to end the tipped wage and instead have all workers make the same minimum wage, and in 2018 and again in 2022 D.C. residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of phasing out the tipped wage. Initiative 87 would again push to end the tipped wage by 2029, and also mandate that any service charges imposed by businesses have to go to workers.
But the initiative is certain to rekindle concerns around costs that are being imposed on D.C. businesses, especially during a challenging moment for the city’s economy. That’s especially the case for bars and restaurants, which represent a significant proportion of local businesses but have been hit by inflation and other increasing costs to operate in D.C.
“I understand the notion of ensuring workers get a higher wage, but my concern lies in the fact we need to be clear-eyed about what this proposal is going to be asking employers to absorb, what it means for workers’ hours and how it impacts hiring, and how much of this cost will be passed down to customers,” says Shawn Townsend, the CEO of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.
The ballot initiative could also create political complications for Lewis George. It’s supported by two labor unions, and unions formed a significant part of the coalition that got her elected mayor. At the same time, she has pledged to make it easier to open a small business in D.C. — and keep it open. In an interview with The Washington Sun in June she said she supports phasing out the tipped wage but doesn’t want to jump up to a $25 minimum wage the way the initiative proposes.
“We’ve got some economic pressures right now, and raising the wages so abruptly without real thoughtful planning and understanding of how it would impact our economy — I believe that takes thoughtful planning but is not something that is practical and feasible right now,” she said.
Through a spokesperson, Lewis George tells The Sun that position still holds, and added: “We need a strategy that will make D.C. a better place to work and a better place to start a business. Our number one priority is making D.C. more affordable and making essentials like housing, utilities, and childcare less expensive for Washingtonians.”
Beyond the specifics over wages, that Initiative 87 could be voted on during a special election — which tend to have significantly lower turnout than primaries or general elections — could be a point of contention. The campaign’s goal had been to have the initiative on the recent November ballot, but an unsuccessful lawsuit by a bar owner to stop it delayed signature collecting efforts earlier in the summer.
D.C. lawmakers recently passed a bill making slight changes to the ballot initiative process, but during the debate there were broader concerns shared around when and how D.C. residents were being asked to weigh in on consequential policy issues. A provision to limit ballot initiatives to general elections did not make it into the bill.
The June 2026 Democratic primary saw turnout of 156,000, and the November general election — when voters approved Initiative 86, which banned the sale of foie gras — came in at 197,000, or 43% of the city’s registered voters. By comparison, the last citywide special election, which happened in April 2013, saw 57,000 ballots cast — 11% turnout.
“The concern is things going on the ballot that have not been assessed with public hearings and analysis of the impact,” Townsend said.
Still, Townsend said the restaurant industry was working with other local businesses and would launch a campaign, Keep D.C. Local and Independent, to urge people to vote against Initiative 87 should it end up on the ballot in the spring. Campaign finance records show that the campaign took in $262,500 from the National Restaurant Association in July.
The fundraising and spending by the proponents of Initiative 87 is unclear; the committee behind it has not filed required campaign finance reports this year, and a spokesperson did not respond to questions about if and when one would be filed. Late campaign finance reports can fetch $50-a-day fines.
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