I just have one question about the ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage of tipped workers to $15 an hour: Why does it even matter what I think?
I don’t own a restaurant. I don’t own a salon. I don’t pretend to know how to run these businesses. So why do I, a random voter, get to tell these small business owners how they should pay their workers?
C’mon, this is not a good use of democracy.
We have to ask ourselves, how is it that, every election cycle, we allow special interest groups to make an end-run on our legislative process? We already have representative government. Voters cast ballots for the people we want to make policy decisions on our behalf.
This season’s ballot questions are a bit much. Beyond weighing in on tipped wages (Question 5), I’m supposed to take sides on Question 2, brought to the ballot by the state’s largest educators union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Why am I being asked about whether to repeal a provision of the 1993 Education Reform Act that makes passing the MCAS test a high school graduation requirement? This really should be something hashed out by teachers and state education leaders.
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But since someone is asking, I am voting no because as a parent of a son in the public schools, I value standards and accountability.
I’m also irritated by Question 3 about whether Uber and Lyft drivers have the right to unionize. These drivers are considered independent contractors, a class of workers who federal law doesn’t typically allow to unionize. I really don’t want to get involved in collective bargaining issues other than what’s going on at my own company. Even organized labor is divided on the matter, with some unions supporting the measure while others have chosen to remain neutral.
To me, Question 3 feels like a slippery slope. Will there be a new unionization effort every election cycle for another group of workers? Freelance writers? Real estate agents? Interior designers? I’m voting no on this one too.
Which brings us back to Question 5 on raising the minimum wage for tipped workers. It’s an issue I’ve been hearing about for months from restaurant owners while reporting a series with my colleague Diti Kohli on reforming Boston’s liquor license system.
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A New York-based advocacy group, One Fair Wage, is pushing for the measure as part of a national campaign to change how tipped workers are paid. The proposal would get rid of the $6.75-an-hour minimum wage currently in place for tipped workers in Massachusetts, such as servers, bartenders, hairdressers, and manicurists, and replace it with the state’s standard $15-an-hour minimum wage.
I’m voting no on Question 5 because I don’t think many workers even want this. The concept is particularly perilous at restaurants, where it pits front-of-the-house workers, who are tipped, against the back-of-the-house workers who typically are not. Caught in the middle are restaurant owners who say it will drive up costs, forcing them to raise prices and reduce staff so they won’t go broke trying to comply with the law.
Proponents of Question 5 argue the measure will create a more equitable pay structure. The matter, they say, is about standing up for worker rights. And voters have to because the people who will benefit the most — lower-paid workers, many of them immigrants, from busboys to dishwashers — are too vulnerable to speak up.
I maintain it’s a bad idea to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to sectors that are still recovering from the turmoil of the pandemic and its aftermath.
And too often, ballot questions make convincing campaign rhetoric but terrible law. A similar measure to boost wages of tipped workers was passed by voters in Portland, Maine, in 2016, but was undone a year later by the state legislature.
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Lauren Friel pays all her workers well above the $15-an-hour state minimum wage at Rebel Rebel and Dear Annie, the two wine bars she owns in Somerville and Cambridge. But she’s voting no on Question 5. Eliminating the lower tipped wage may have been the right choice for her, but, she said, it’s not for everyone.
Friel pays the higher wages by automatically adding a 20 percent service charge to customers’ bills, instead of asking them to leave a tip. She said it has taken her a dozen iterations to come up with a business model that works, and even designed her dining room to feature counter service so she doesn’t have to hire as many workers.
Friel also said it was easier for her to eliminate tipped wages because her places primarily serve drinks; it would be difficult for full-service restaurants to make the transition.
“It’s unfair for people to upend their business model,” said Friel. “We had to reverse engineer our business with this pay structure.”
Nia Grace, owner of Grace by Nia jazz club in the Seaport, said the measure would cost her nearly $20,000 annually per employee, an expense that normally would be covered by customer tips. To stay viable, she said she would have to cut her workforce by 30 percent, raise menu prices, and shift to having customers order from kiosks and bus their own tables.
“We will have to train the customer to have a reduced set of expectations,” said Grace.
Joe McGuirk, a 59-year-old bartender at Highland Kitchen in Somerville, is also voting no. He doesn’t know many workers who support the measure. He agrees with Question 5 supporters that the current system of tipped wages invites wage theft, harassment, and discrimination. But he doesn’t think this ballot question is the solution.
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“We should be doing a better job at reducing those,” said McGuirk. “Hopefully this is an impetus that will get us to start advocating for ourselves, coming together, talking about what we’d like to have happen in our workplace.”
Indeed, said McGuirk — himself a two-time candidate for Cambridge City Council — workers, restaurant owners, and, yes, state lawmakers could do a lot together to improve pay and working conditions in the restaurant industry.
That’s might be wiser and more effective than asking you and me to do it for them.
Shirley Leung is a Business columnist and host of the Globe Opinion podcast “Say More with Shirley Leung.” Find the podcast on Apple, Spotify, and globe.com/saymore. Follow her on Threads @shirley02186
Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com.