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What's happened: After hearing hours of testimony from dozens of servers, restaurateurs, and industry allies, the Portland City Council rejected a proposal to send a ballot question to voters to eliminate the tip credit. Councilors also opposed advancing a question that would have raised the local minimum wage to $20/hour.
What this means: No new wage initiatives will be on the Portland ballot this November after councilors voted to kick both wage questions back to committee, halting any likely movement on the issue this year. Two of the three councilors who initiated the proposal to eliminate the tip credit will not be returning next year.
An outpouring of opposition: At the height of Maine's hospitality and tourism season, servers and restaurateurs spoke for hours in opposition to advancing the tip credit elimination proposal. In fact, of the nearly 50 who attended, not a single person spoke in support of ending the tip credit. Only a handful who testified supported the question to increase the minimum wage to $20/hour.
Why this is important: Local and regional decisions can often have statewide implications. A strong show of support for the tip credit model by those on the front lines of the hospitality industry quashed yet another threat to Maine's restaurant community. To protect the long-term viability of the state's hospitality industry statewide, it's important to make sure bad public policy proposals initiated at the local level don't gain traction.
What's next: In a procedural move, the council voted to kick both wage proposals back to committee, where they received virtually no review to start. This very likely stalls any efforts this year to eliminate the tip credit, including other wage reform discussions. There is no established timeline when this could return in Portland or another community, and it is a committee chair's prerogative to set which items appear on an agenda and when. Functionally, these proposals are dead— for now.
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