Bowser wants to repeal 2022 law passed by voters on tipped minimum wage

Washington Post | By Jenny Gathright and Tim Carman | May 5, 2025

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Monday announced plans to repeal a law that gradually raises tipped workers’ minimum wage, part of what she described as a broader effort to counteract the economic impacts of the Trump administration’s federal workforce cuts by making the city more business-friendly.

Bowser (D) will include legislation to overturn the law — which ups tipped workers’ minimum wages in increments to eventually match the minimum wages of their non-tipped counterparts — in her fiscal 2026 budget proposal. Scrapping the law, which D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved in 2022, is one way to ease the financial burden on restaurants that are also facing higher operating costs and rents, the mayor said at a news conference.