Initiative 77

In June, D.C. voters approved a measure raising tipped workers’ base wages. Four months later the D.C. Council overturned D.C. voters and repealed that initiative – Initiative 77.

An advocacy group plans to appeal a court order that foiled its effort to hold a new election on a wages for tipped workers that had been approved by D.C. voters but overturned by the D.C. Council.

Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC), together with community activists, spent the past week collecting signatures to put a referendum on a future ballot that would revive Initiative 77—the ballot measure that sought to eliminate…

A D.C. judge issued a ruling on Wednesday afternoon that likely kills a nascent effort to revive Initiative 77, the voter-approved measure that sought to raise the base wage paid to tipped workers in the city.

A D.C. Superior Court judge halted efforts Wednesday to force a new referendum on a law approved by voters- but repealed by the D.C. Council - that would overhaul how servers, bartenders and other tipped workers are paid.

Proponents of a referendum to overturn the D.C. Council’s repeal of Initiative 77 say they are approaching the number of signatures they need to put the measure on the ballot, with two more days left to finish the task. But opponents are…

Activists are scrambling to collect thousands of signatures needed to revive a law approved by voters but overturned by the D.C. Council that would change how the District’s servers, bartenders and other tipped employees are paid.

The race to save Initiative 77 is on.

Today you may encounter petitioners looking for your signature. The 'Save Our Vote' campaign led by Restaurant Opportunities Center United and Rev. Graylan Hagler were given the green light to forge ahead with their referendum to repeal the…

The Initiative 77 chess match continues. 

A push for a public vote to overturn the D.C. Council’s repeal of Initiative 77 hit a significant roadblock on Tuesday, as a D.C. bartender filed a lawsuit looking to delay, if not outright derail the proposed referendum.

The debate about Initiative 77, the ballot measure in June’s primary to eliminate the two-tiered wage system, played out with special acrimony on social media. Perhaps you’d like to return to those simpler times of online debate, back…

One of the guaranteed write-in candidates for tomorrow’s local election isn’t a living, breathing human. According to Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, those who are incensed by the outcome of the long battle over Initiative 77 are planning to…

The fight over tipping and how restaurant workers are paid in the nation’s capital may be returning to the ballot. The D.C. Council this month repealed Initiative 77, which voters passed in June to require employers to pay more to servers,…

If you thought the debate over the tipped minimum wage in D.C. is over, you may have another thing coming. A group of activists is organizing an effort to call a public referendum on the D.C. Council bill passed this month that repealed…

When Blaine Smith arrived for work as a barista at the CityCenter Dolcezza last Wednesday, he learned that his hourly wage was changing from $13.25 an hour plus tips to $10.50 plus tips, effective that day. The shift is emblematic of a…

After hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign spending, tens of thousands of voters heading to the polls and hundreds of angry calls and emails to lawmakers, a contentious fight over restaurant worker pay in the nation’s capital ended…