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Li-Ming Dolan is hustling behind the counter at Paul and Elizabeth's restaurant in Northampton, Massachusetts, even before her lunch customers arrive.
Dressed in black with an orange flower tucked into her hair, Dolan heaps butter chips and lemon slices on top of ice, while filling water pitchers.
At 38, Dolan has worked more than half of her life at this restaurant and opposes a statewide ballot question that would change the way many tipped workers, like her, are paid.
Ballot Question 5 would phase in a wage increase for workers who earn tips. That includes servers, bartenders and people who work in nail and hair salons. It would gradually increase the $6.75 an hour tipped minimum wage every year for the next five years, when these workers would be paid the full minimum wage by their employers. Even after the wage increase, they could still earn tips.
Proponents say it would allow tipped workers to have a more predictable income.
Opponents, like Dolan, say a higher hourly wage would have a ripple effect as restaurants look for ways to cover the cost. She said the price of going out to eat could jump to cover the wage increase. And her total income, which is based largely on tips, "would probably go far down," she said.
"If all of the prices were to raise dramatically, it would create some — honestly — some resentment from diners," she said, "to have the price of their meal go up so dramatically and then to be expected to tip on top of that."
But Bartender Serena Johnson supports the measure.
"I believe in workers and them being able to be paid a wage that is guaranteed," she said.
Johnson, 38, bartends two to three days a week at a bar and restaurant at Bousquet Mountain Ski Area in Pittsfield. She considers her bartending to be "supplementary work" to a second, full-time job, but still wants to count on steady pay.
"There are days that are going to be absolutely dead and you're walking [away] with nothing, and then you're going to be making that up on another day." she said. "I'm at a place in my life where the stability of the income is important to me and that up-and-down stress — I'm not interested in it anymore."
Johnson said she understands that if meal prices go up, it could be hard on the public, but she still wants servers to be paid more.
"If you're eating out, then this is the cost of doing business right here in this climate and in this day and age," she said. "I don't think that that burden should be put on the worker for this."
Today in Massachusetts, employers must pay tipped workers at least $6.75 an hour. If a worker doesn't take in enough tips to make the states $15 minimum wage, the restaurant is required to make up the difference.
But Johnson said that doesn’t always happen.
"It was something that we had to bring to the attention of our employer," she said. "My employer looked at it and does it now automatically for us."
One piece of a national campaign
Estefania Galvis is with the Yes On Five campaign, part of One Fair Wage, a New York-based nonprofit that is fighting for a living wage for all workers.
"It actually creates a much better situation for workers to not rely on the tips to be able to meet their wages," Galvis said.
She said the current wage system disproportionately hurts women and workers of color.
Galvis said in states where servers are paid the full minimum wage, customers still tip.
"The difference is that what workers take home is not going to fully depend on the tips. It's going to be much more established, and then they will be having the tips on the top of that established wage, and they can count on the amount per week," Galvez said. "So they can budget."
One Fair Wage is pushing to end the sub-minimum wage in 25 states by 2026.
Worries from restaurants
Supporters and opponents have spent a lot fighting and supporting Question 5.
Supporters have raised $1.2 million so far, with most of that coming from One Fair Wage.
Opponents raised $2.5 million — much of it from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.
At Theodores' BBQ in Springfield, co-owner and manager Keith Makarowski said approval of Question 5 could lead to staff cuts.
"I could see restaurants — just imagining it — eliminating staff altogether, going to QR codes so that people can order off of their phones. I can most certainly see a reduction of staff just to make ends meet," he said.
The price of meals is now based on the lower wage restaurants are required to pay to tipped workers, not the $15 an hour they would have to pay under Question 5, Makarowski said.
"If the cost has to get passed along, no one's going to really want to pay $60 for a hamburger. You know, as inflation is already there and people are already struggling to make ends meet," he said.
But food prices are unlikely to spike so much that Theodores' highest-priced burger, at $15.99, gets anywhere near $60.
The UMass Labor Center and Political Economy Research Institute issued a policy brief that found paying tipped workers the full minimum wage won’t have a big impact on meal prices or employment. It said restaurants would increase meal prices by a small amount — only about 2%.
The Tufts Center for State Policy Analysis found that restaurants are likely to increase prices, but they didn’t calculate by how much. The analysis did warn that the added cost could force some restaurants to close, given tight profit margins in the industry.
That Tufts analysis also said if Question 5 passed, it would “likely increase earnings” for tipped workers.
Many servers strongly opposed
Besides increasing hourly wages, Question 5, if approved, would also allow restaurant owners to pool tips and distribute them to all workers, including those who don't work for tips, such as dishwashers — once employers are paying the minimum wage.
Kathalina Garcia, a bartender at Del Rey Taquería and Bar in Springfield, said she does not want to pool her tips, which she described as "amazingly good." Garcia said because the question would allow pooling, she would vote against it.
"Pool tipping? Like, I don't know about that since I'm doing the work, you know," she said.
But Garcia is very enthusiastic about the possibility of getting a higher hourly wage.
"If hourly ... goes up, it will be a game changer. I'll be so happy with it. You know, obviously my check will be a little bit fatter," she said with a laugh.
Some other tipped workers are firmly against Question 5.
On a recent afternoon, Victor Wellman wrapped up his shift at Jakes, a restaurant in Northampton.
"Thanks for coming in. We'll see you next time," he said to his last customer of the day.
Wellman, 24, is a full-time server and also attends college online. With tips, he said, he makes more than the minimum already.
"I pay my rent. I make payments on my car. I have extremely high car insurance. I eat good. I live good," he said.
Wellman said he learned about the ballot question from his boss.
"It's not something that he's pushed on us to sort of advocate for, but he's definitely informed us of sort of the dangers that the restaurant itself faces, with that potentially being passed," he said.
Wellman said he doesn't want the way customers are charged to change.
"We don't know exactly what that looks like. Whether it's a gratuity added to your bill — in which case people are less inclined to tip on top of that — or menu prices are raised," he said.
Cali Miller, 25, is also against Question 5. Since she started waitressing a year ago, she said, she has has had a "significant increase" in her income.
"I have been able to pay off a lot of my debt and fix a lot of my credit issues that I was dealing with while I was working a minimum wage job," she said.
Miller said she researched the ballot question on the website of The Committee to Protect Tips, which is against Question 5. She said she also learned about it from her manager at The Delaney House in Holyoke, where she waits on tables. Miller has a second job as a bartender at the Whiskey Barrel in South Hadley.
"Bartending, I usually make anywhere between $100 to $300 a night. Waitressing, it can vary from $80 to $300 a night," she said.
Her bartending shift is seven to eight hours. As a waitress, she works three to three and a half hours. She said she enjoys making sure her customers have a good experience and opposes pooling tips.
Miller said customers "don't mind tipping for good service and good food," but that Question 5 would make customers feel that they don't have to tip as much.
"Or tip at all, seeing that we're getting a fair hourly rate. But, for us, I mean, I make a lot more than a minimum wage, and even more than most jobs," she said.
If Question 5 becomes law, Miller said she would move to another state.
Jennifer Wright, a bartender at Theodores', said she earns enough to pay all her bills "and then some."
If Ballot Question 5 passed, Wright said, "I would have to get a new job."
Back at Paul and Elizabeth's, Dolan said Question 5 could "pretty dramatically affect my bottom line in a bad way."
"It would take me from being a person who can support two kids on my own, living in a pretty high-cost-of-living town. I live right here in Northampton. And kind of bring me back to the poverty line," she said.
It's not just servers who are split on the questions. Top Massachusetts Democrats are also divided. State Attorney General Andrea Campbell supports the proposal, while Gov. Maura Healy opposes it.
