WESTLAKE, Ohio — A ballot initiative is trying to increase the minimum wage for workers across Ohio, including tipped employees, but some fear it could change tipping culture and impact restaurant operations.
At Hail Mary's in West Lake, Pat Lavecchia has been serving customers food and drinks for three years.
“I love it. I love being around people. I love making people happy and just giving people a good experience,” said Lavecchia.
Every week, he works around 30 hours, and he enjoys the tips, but a new ballot initiative could change the way he gets paid.
Raise the Wage Ohio is a political action committee that is currently running a ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage in Ohio, said Mariah Ross, the Campaign Manager for Raise the Wage Ohio and One Fair Wage.
Ross said they are pushing for the state minimum wage to be incrementally increased to $15 an hour plus tips.
“More importantly, what it means is that it's going to end sub-minimum wages for tipped workers,“ Ross said. “A lot of people don't know what the sub-minimum wage is, but currently in Ohio, it was just recently $5.05, and with the increase due to inflation this year, it is now $5.35.”
Back in September, we told you how Mayor Justin Bibb kicked off a grant program with High Road Kitchens and One Fair Wage to assist any restaurant that was willing to increase their hourly pay.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
These were the approaches High Road Restaurants recommended to profitably increase pay:
No. 1: Increasing the cost of the menu price to cover the service
No. 2: Is essentially gratuity; when you get your ticket, there will be a service charge.
No. 3: Pay servers minimum wage, plus tips, which is used across seven states, including California, Oregon and Washington.
But not every restaurant is on board.
“They don't want to see the tip wage eliminated. It's so critical to their business,” said John Barker, the president and CEO of Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance.
He said studies show Cleveland has some of the highest tippers in the state, adding that 85% of the restaurants don’t want to change what or how they pay their staff, and it turns out 90% of those staffers agree.
“The reason they liked tipping servers is that the average tipped server in the state of Ohio makes $27,” Barker said. "In a little town in Ohio, say for a small mom-and-pop operator, you might make closer to $19—$20 an hour."
Barker said restaurants are still trying to stay afloat following the pandemic and inflation that's at an all-time high. If the wages are raised, some businesses will have no choice but to increase menu costs to manage.
“The repercussions of this are going to be really felt by the consumer, and they're nervous about that...because they try to provide good value to their customers right now,” said Barker.
While Ross understands it will be hard, she said the service industry is mostly women and the number one place for harassment, adding that just as the restaurants are struggling, so are the employees.
“We believe that if anyone is working 40 hours a week that they should be able to afford the basic necessities of life and enjoy the dignity of work,” said Ross.
While for Lavecchia, he makes an average of $25 to $30 an hour and says that if this goes into place, he will make less money. He added that he doesn't want to see the customer or the business pay for a possible raise in wages.
“People that get into this business, they get into the business for a reason. They like being around people, they like giving people a good experience. Let them earn a good wage doing that, instead of the owner being strangled,” said Lavecchia.
As of now, the Raise the Wage ballot initiative has more than 360,000 signatures; they need at least 415,00 to be put on the November Ballot.
