Question 5 would mean a wage cut for tipped workers like me

I make significantly more than the state minimum wage as a bartender.

By Gretchen Shelgren

I’m 51 years old and have worked in the restaurant industry since I was 13, doing everything from washing dishes and cooking on the line to managing, serving, bartending, and hosting.

For the past 20 years I have been a bartender, and I love it. But if passed by Massachusetts voters in November, Question 5 would do away with the tipped minimum wage of $6.25 and replace it with the state minimum wage.

The thing that bothers me the most about the ballot measure is that it’s not an organic, grass-roots movement of bartenders, servers, and other tipped employees. Instead, it’s being pushed by an outside political activist group that wants to tell us how we should be paid. I have yet to speak to a tipped employee who has heard from the group or who supports its ballot proposal.

Why? Simple. It’s trying to solve a nonexistent problem. Many servers already make a comfortable living. When my tips are factored in, I earn significantly more than the minimum wage. I make enough so that, as a single parent, I have been able to buy a home and raise a child on my earnings.

But this proposal would take my hard-earned tips out of my hands and allow management to decide how they will be divided. This will probably lead to a mass exodus of servers and bartenders from the industry. Look at Washington, D.C., where 10 percent of jobs at sit-down restaurants were cut shortly after the implementation of a similar ballot question. Based on the experience there, it’s fair to say that Question 5 would force restaurants to raise prices and lay off workers. Some restaurants, particularly those in smaller cities and towns, probably wouldn’t survive.

More than 90 percent of servers and bartenders recently polled in a survey done for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association said they prefer the way the system works now and do not want to see it change. They fear that their overall tips would decrease, and polling suggests they are right.

Bartenders and servers who have worked under such a system know that voters tip considerably less if they know a server or bartender is making $15 per hour as base pay. Many customers also reduce their tips if they know that the gratuity goes to a large tip pool that gives extra pay to people who did not serve them. There’s simply no way we would make up for those types of losses.

I worked under such a system when I lived in Washington state, which has a similar law. Working as a bartender and server, I got a full minimum wage, with tips on top. In my experience, the average customer, aware that we were paid the minimum wage even before gratuities, tipped about 10 percent. In my experience, the higher basic wage didn’t make up for the lower level of tipping.

I didn’t sign up to be a minimum-wage worker and I won’t be fooled by the out-of-state organization pushing this. Even with its lower “tipping” wage, under this state’s current system, I am already guaranteed minimum wage, whether I serve one guest or 100.

Simply put, Question 5 would force me to take a pay cut — and if I were to make less than what I’m currently earning, I would probably need a second job.

The bottom line is this: Servers and bartenders don’t want this out-of-state ballot scheme. Next time you are out to eat, just ask one of us.

I would implore all voters to vote no on Question 5.

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