On Nov. 5, Massachusetts voters will have the chance to change how tipped employees are paid with Ballot Question 5.

But how does the current payment model work, and what do members of the local service industry think of the measure?

Pushing for more

The ballot question affects not only servers, but also hotel workers, rideshare drivers and delivery drivers.

“It actually is largely perceived as a restaurant ballot question,” said Chris Keohan, the spokesperson for the Committee to Protect Tips. “But this changes the law for anyone using the tip credit.”

Under the current system, tipped workers are paid a base hourly rate of $6.75 (plus tips). If their average hourly rate with tips is below the state minimum wage of $15, employers are required to pay their employees the difference in what’s called a tip credit.

If Ballot Question 5 passes, the measure would raise the base rate each year until it reaches the equivalent of the state’s minimum wage in 2029.

There’s a schedule of mandated raises as well. Employers would need to pay their tipped staff 64% of the $15 minimum wage ($9.60 per hour) by January 1, 2025, for example. And each year it goes up until 2029, when everyone must earn $15 per hour.

Once they even out, it would take away the tip credit system and allow employers to distribute any tips given among both tipped and non-tipped workers at an establishment.

Leading the charge in favor of the ballot measure is a group called One Fair Wage, an advocacy group largely funded by the Alliance for a Just Society that’s helped organize support for petitions raising worker’s wages in various industries. The organization and its lobby arm helped promote measures passed in Washington, DC, and California that raised the minimum wage for service workers. Although founded out of state, its Massachusetts arm has been around for years.

Even with the tip credit system, OFW Massachusetts and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) say that wage theft disproportionately affects restaurant and hotel industry where tips are common. Both have cited data from the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division that shows these industries had the most wage theft related complaints.

Grace Mcgovern, an Organizer for OFW Massachusetts, says this system is inherently flawed because servers disproportionately rely on tips to make a living wage.

“When you‘re relying entirely on tips and you can’t afford to have a bad day,” she said.

This means income can be inconsistent and can put increasing amounts of pressure on servers to endure rude behavior from customers in order to survive.  

According to a hearing presented to the state’s Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions, NELP found through their own research that women and people of color are overrepresented in the service industry and would be disproportionately feeling the brunt of financial insecurity. 

“Especially as a woman, and especially as someone who is serving alcohol, it can get really uncomfortable.” Mcgovern said. “I’ve had to pull off while serving that alcohol, and then now I’m risking my tip, and also I have an irate customer, like questioning my authority and causing a scene.”

Pushing the brakes

Marianne Keeley, a server at O’Hara’s Pub in Newton, wants voters to reject Ballot Question 5 because she fears it will cut into her income, not add to it.

“If you give good service to a customer, you know, nine and a half out of 10 times someone’s going to be very generous back to you, right?” Keeley said.

Other concerns opponents have include the potential loss of servers’ autonomy over tip pooling, and the perceived negative effect it would have in an industry with extremely thin profit margins.

“We give up our weekends, we give up our nights, and we work hard to earn our tips,” said Yvonne Bliss, a server at Dunn and Gaherin’s. “And to be told now that the group that wants to, you know, help create a fair wage, where we already get paid $15 an hour in Massachusetts.”

The Committee to Protect Tips—a political action committee supported by the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the Charles River Regional Chamber—has also used data to back up their points. According to a survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon, 86% of bartenders and servers in the state think the current tipping system works for them.

Business owners worry the measure could force them to raise prices of food, which would in turn drive away business and force them to cut staff in order to stay afloat.

“We’re going to have to go because the servers don’t want it,” Seana Gaherin, owner of Dunn and Gaherin’s, said. ”The owners can’t afford it, and the customer is going to have to pay for the price of a burger going up so much.”

Arpit Patel, owner of Baramour and Oak N’ Barrel in Newton, noted that pay works differently in every establishment, but in his experience, the current system allows servers to make great money when providing good service.

“There’s this kind of narrative being said where restaurant employees aren’t making minimum wage, which I think is kind of misleading, because restaurant employees are not minimum wage employees,” Patel said. “They’re employees who make significantly above minimum wage, typically, if it was a minimum wage job, most servers and bartenders would not work in the industry.”

Voters will decide the fate of tipped employee pay in just a couple of weeks. You can read an extensive Tufts analysis of Ballot Question 5 here.