Thread by @rebeccavallas

The restaurant lobby is so hell-bent on paying tipped workers a poverty-level sub-minimum wage, they’re funding a front group pretending to be organized restaurant workers—all to block D.C.’s #Initiative77.

Meet @SaveOurTips.

(THREAD)

@saveourtips 1. In DC, tipped workers—aka anyone who makes even $30 in tips per month—are subject to a sub-minimum wage of $3.33 an hour. #Initiative77, which is on the ballot in DC through June 19th, would ensure they’re paid the same minimum wage as all other workers.

@saveourtips 2. In the months since #Initiative77 started to gain steam, signs screaming “Save Our Tips!” appeared in seemingly every bar and restaurant across DC. Diners drown in @SaveOurTips flyers making wild claims about how the ballot measure will supposedly hurt workers.

3. @SaveOurTips has gone to great lengths to pretend it’s a workers’ organization, framing #Initiative77 in terms of “our tips” and “my take-home pay”—and even crafting a “resist” Twitter presence intended to appeal to left-leaning voters.

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by @saveourtips view original on Twitter

4. So who’s really behind @SaveOurTips? The National Restaurant Association (aka the "other NRA"), the Restaurant Association of Metro Washington, and a range of other industry groups and companies.

Here’s how we know…

5. The @SaveOurTips campaign website is registered to the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington:

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@saveourtips 6. The address @SaveOurTips lists for where to send campaign contributions is literally the Restaurant Association’s K Street headquarters: saveourtips.com/contribute/

7. Campaign finance filings show Save Our Tips has raised $250K since April to kill #Initiative77:

✅ $100K from the National Restaurant Association

✅ $75K from the Restaurant Association of Metro Washington

✅ In all *over 99%* came from industry.

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8. Meanwhile, some DC restaurants aren’t just misinforming their workers—they’re actively pressuring them to oppose #Initiative77. Here’s what workers at Matchbox see when they clock in for a shift:

9. This is how desperate the restaurant lobby is to not have to pay their workers a living wage. Meanwhile it would take a minimum wage worker 247 hours—six full weeks of work—to earn what Dawn Sweeney, the other NRA’s CEO, makes in a single hour.
theintercept.com/2018/06/11/sav…

10. Many in the media have played right into the campaign’s hands, reinforcing the myth that the opposition to #Initiative77 is worker-led. Take this recent Buzzfeed article, which quotes only board members of one of @SaveOurTips’s chief lobbying partners:

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by @jeremyslevin view original on Twitter

11. Here are the facts @SaveOurTips doesn’t want you to know.👇

@saveourtips 12. In the eight states that have eliminated the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers:

✔️ Median wages for tipped workers went ⬆️14%

✔️ Poverty rates among tipped workers went ⬇️

✔️ Tipping behavior is virtually unchanged

popville.com/2018/06/the-ca…

@saveourtips 13. Eliminating the sub-minimum wage especially helps women, who make up two-thirds of all tipped workers.

It doesn’t just boost wages, it also helps to:

✅ Close gender wage gaps
talkpoverty.org/2018/06/04/yes…

✅ Curb sexual harassment slate.com/articles/news_…

@saveourtips 14. OK, so what about restaurants? In the eight states that have eliminated the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, the restaurant industry is thriving. In fact, restaurants in those states have even seen stronger growth than in other states.
epi.org/blog/seven-fac…

@saveourtips 15. So D.C. voters, now that you know who’s behind all the misinformation about #Initiative77, it’s in your hands.
You have until June 19th to vote for a more equal city by saying #YesOn77.

/end