10/21/2024
Dining out is dangerously close to getting a whole lot more expensive at every restaurant in the state. This is no exaggeration.
According to this UMass/WCVB poll conducted last week of 700 voters, Question 5 is “likely to be approved”, as stated by the pollsters.
While those polled most likely think they are doing the right thing by giving tipped employees a “pay raise” to the state minimum wage, don’t be fooled. This is not a pay raise. It is a pay cut.
This ballot question is anything but a pay raise and 90% of servers/bartenders who were polled separately by the Mass. Restaurant Assoc., who would “benefit” from this being approved by voters, are NO VOTES on this question. That’s right: The very same people who are supposedly the beneficiaries of this “raise” provided by Ballot Question 5 DO NOT WANT IT!
This question is a wolf in sheeps’ clothing.
The result of it passing will be:
Higher menu prices everywhere to cover increased payroll cost (owners will have no choice)
Job losses due to higher costs to operate translating into fewer servers/bartenders to serve guests (owners will be forced to cut the staff down)
Decreased level of service for guests as an incentive to provide great service no longer exists with reduced tipping (not to mention there will simply be fewer servers working per shift)
Reduced pay for tipped workers as guests will tip less with the higher menu prices
Restaurant closures as operating becomes a whole lot more expensive and unsustainable
With more than 60% of those polled last week favoring a Yes vote, it is time to get the word out that NO on 5 is how to save the restaurant industry from being reinvented in the worst kind of way. And those who will suffer greatest if it passes will be those it was supposedly intended to help.
Employees and owners agree: VOTE NO ON 5. It hurts tipped employees, restaurants and guests.