A look at Initiative 77 from those inside the push for and against the ballot measure

Seventeen years in the restaurant industry makes Karim Soumah a veteran in his profession.

“There are three types of people in the restaurant industry,” Soumah said. “You’ve got your bar/wine people — they know their drinks better than anyone. You’ve got food people — they know their food. (Trust me, food porn is real.) And then the last group, I pride myself on being a part of, because we are the rarest, the ‘guests’ experience’ people — we are about the totality of it all.”

Working first as a waiter, then as a bartender and eventually as a manager, Soumah knows all of the ins and outs of the industry. Managing a small restaurant in Northeast DC made him realize which parts of the job he didn’t like.

“I woke up with the stress of the restaurant and went to sleep with the stress of the restaurant,” Soumah said.

So he went back to perfecting his serving skills and now works at Ris on L Street NW in the West End. Recently he has added a new title to his résumé: activist. Save Our Tips, a campaign organized by those fighting against Initiative 77, has become Soumah’s new hobby.

“My friend was the one that created Save Our Tips, so I just reached out to him and told him I could help,” Soumah said.

If passed, Initiative 77 will require restaurants and other establishments in DC to phase out the tipped minimum wage ($3.33 an hour, supplemented by the employer if a worker’s tips aren’t enough to bring them up to the city’s general minimum wage) and gradually pay their employees $15 an hour by the year 2026 (or whatever DC’s statutory minimum wage is by then). Soumah believes this sounds like a great idea on paper, but if implemented could do more harm than good.

“I feel very disrespected by the fact that we were lectured and chided and told we are slaves of the industry,” Soumah said. “Their concerns are legitimate, but they could have approached it a different way.”

Soumah said the first few meetings Save Our Tips had with Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC), the organization pushing Initiative 77, went from a discussion to “a war.” ROC provided Save Our Tips with information about how this fair wage model has worked in other cities. He claims ROC listened to their side but then refused to believe the evidence put in front of them.

“They have a one-size-fits-all model, and they are frustrated that our peg doesn’t fit their hole,” Soumah said. “You can’t compare DC to other cities like San Francisco and New York, because we are different.”

 

A CONSTANT BATTLE

For Diana Ramirez, the tipped-wages issue is a personal one.

“My sister worked in the restaurant industry all through high school,” Ramirez said, recalling the dismay she felt seeing her sister toil in low-wage tipped positions at chain establishments in El Paso, Texas. “The restaurant industry conditions women to think that their self-worth is their body and their tips.”

Before becoming the director of Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) for DC, she worked for Public Citizen, an organization dedicated to ensuring the government works for the people and not big corporations. But her interest in ROC, particularly Initiative 77, is due to her sister. Ramirez remembers the painful conversation her sister once had with a manager who asked her if she could “control herself” if people tried to grab at her.

“So when it did happen, she felt like she couldn’t go and report it because that was what was expected,” Ramirez said. “It sets a horrible standard of what appropriate and tolerant behavior is.”

Ramirez believes fear is what keeps restaurant workers silent — fear on the part of women and minorities who believe they must not speak out against sexual harassment or discrimination, and fear on the part of tipped workers who would otherwise speak out in favor of Initiative 77.

“The higher dependency on tips, the more likely you are to put up with unwanted behavior,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez believes that in light of the #MeToo movement, it is important that society stand up and empower women and minorities.

“Sexual harassment isn’t about sex,” Ramirez said. “It’s about power.”

She wonders if her sister’s life would have been different had she received a higher minimum wage at her first restaurant job. Her sister became a stripper, had an unplanned child at 19 and had to overcome a cocaine addiction.

“If my sister had gotten $15 an hour plus tips, she would have had more time to be with her son,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez’s biggest challenge is battling the National Restaurant Association or the “other NRA.”

“The NRA has fought against Obamacare, paid health care … We just want basic job equity,” Ramirez said.

 

THE DEBATE

Kristina Zaumseil, a former bartender at Fogo de Chão on Pennsylvania Avenue NW downtown, finds the notion that women put up with sexual harassment for tips incredibly insulting.

“Women get sexually harassed just walking down the street,” Zaumseil said. “To put the blame of sexual harassment on tips is taking away from the fact that the problem with sexual harassment is sexual harassers.”

Zaumseil did work at a salaried job at one point in her life and encountered a problem with sexual harassment from a senior vice president. The man made inappropriate remarks to female staff members, who eventually reported him to the human resources department.

“But instead of reporting the problem to the organization, they paid for him to get therapy,” Zaumseil said.

The idea that women of color or immigrant women in the tipped working industry are subjected to more sexual harassment or are more fearful of reporting those instances than salaried employees is bothersome to Zaumseil.

“If you are relying on your job, it doesn’t matter if you make $15 an hour,” she said.

ROC says that in states that have a “fair” minimum wage for tipped workers, sexual harassment is less likely to occur. Their reports also state that workers of color in these states experience poverty levels 27 percent lower than in states without what ROC calls “One Fair Wage.”

“In no other industry do you get to determine how much you pay for a service after you receive it,” Ramirez said. “If I live paycheck-to-paycheck, why am I [as a customer] paying someone’s wages?”

Soumah said many people get into the restaurant industry because it is so different from a 9-to-5 job. He worries that if the minimum wage increases, menu prices will rise and employers will be forced to make difficult cuts to keep up with the rising costs.

“Also, let’s say you have someone like me — [I’ve] greeted you appropriately, [and] the food was delicious. If I’m the guy that is good, what is my motivation to be better?” Soumah said. “The tip is a motivating factor for the employee.”

Ramirez, the ROC organizer, does not foresee this becoming a problem. If the minimum wage increases and the tip credit is eliminated, tipped workers can still make tips on top of that minimum wage, she said.

“Give yourself the full minimum wage so that tips become what they are supposed to be: on top of gratuity,” Ramirez said.

Zaumseil said she and many of the other tipped workers fighting for Save Our Tips understand where Ramirez is coming from. They believe she has good intentions but think Initiative 77 is trying to tackle too many separate issues and is handling the situation incorrectly.

“I in some ways agree with her,” Zaumseil said. “But I have no doubts in my mind that I wouldn’t be where I am without this industry. If I thought this [Initiative 77] was going to benefit people and give them a leg up, I would support it. But I don’t.”