CINCINNATI — Cincinnati servers and bartenders are overwhelmingly against possible changes to Ohio's tipping system, according to a new survey from the Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance.
The survey comes as multiple initiatives in Ohio seek to eliminate the state's tipped wage and work toward a goal of a $15 per hour minimum wage for all.
Raise the Wage Ohio, a ballot initiative, wants to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026, saying more than 1 million Ohioans would benefit from the increase, according to the ballot initiative's website. According to the proposed ballot measure, minimum wage would raise to $12.75 from its current $10.45 beginning Jan. 1, 2025, and it would then go up to $15 beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
Currently, Ohio's tipped minimum wage is $5.25. This ballot initiative would eliminate the tipped minimum wage altogether, rolling it up under the overall state minimum wage.
"The basic necessities that will be covered by $15 an hour minimum wage just include very basic things like food, housing, transportation, … child care, health care, " Mariah Ross, the executive director of One Fair Wage, which is behind Raise the Wage Ohio, said in an Ohio Capital Journal report. "It's very basic things."
Ohio Democratic lawmakers also introduced a bill in September 2023 that would get rid of Ohio's tipped wage. Senate Bill 146 , which was introduced by Senators Kent Smith, D-Euclid and Hearcel Craig, D-Columbus, would eliminate the different between tipped and non-tipped employees' wages, steadily raising the state's minimum wage by $1 year-over-year until the one ubiquitous wage reaches $15, which the bill states would happen in 2027.
Smith told the Ohio Capital Journal the Senate bill is about playing the long game, saying "the minimum wage is still too low and that the tipped worker penalty is not good for anyone."
The Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance issued a statewide survey in April of nearly 1,000 tipped restaurant employees. Per the survey, 92% of Cincinnati servers and bartenders said they want to keep the current tipping system in Ohio.
"This would cause way more harm than good for hospitality professionals," Michael Gunther, a server at Jeff Ruby's in downtown, told the Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance. "If the tipped wage is eliminated, I would make less money while guests would pay more and this is a real change many small restaurants would move across state lines to Kentucky and Indiana to stay in business, completely altering the hospitality landscape in Cincinnati."
According to the survey results, 84% of tipped employees in Cincinnati say they earn $20 per hour or more, with 66% saying they are $25 to more than $40 per hour.
John Barker, president and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance, said in a press release that owners and operators of businesses are also against getting rid of tipped wages, with the alliance's latest poll saying 96% of owners are opposed.
Jean-Francois Flechet, founder and owner of Taste of Belgium, which has several locations throughout the Greater Cincinnati area, said his servers make between $25 to $30 per hour.
"If we eliminate that tipped wage, it would change hospitality in Ohio forever," Flechet told the Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance. "I would be forced to eliminate jobs and transition my business models to QR codes or automated ordering to avoid passing the bulk of the additional labor costs onto my customers."
Barker said inflation would also increase with the elimination of tipped wages, ultimately hurting the guests alongside workers and owners.
Raise the Wage Ohio is currently collecting signatures to appear on the November ballot. The ballot initiative needs to collect more than 413,000 signatures by July 3 to successful appear at the election. Senate Bill 146 is currently at the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee.
If the ballot initiative or Senate bill would pass, Ohio would join the likes of other states with mandatory minimum wages, such as California's mandatory $20 per hour for fast-food workers. In the 2022 election, Washington, D.C. voted to get ride of minimum wage for tipped employees. The mandate went into effect on Feb. 23, 2023 with the tipped wage to be fully eliminated from D.C. by July 2027.
