EPI Research

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  The Impact of Initiative 82: Survey of Restaurants on the Impact of Tip Credit Elimination in the District of Columbia

  April 2023

  Initiative 82, also known the “District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act of 2022,” was passed in November 2022 and will go into effect beginning May 1, 2023. Initiative 82 will eliminate the tip credit by increasing the tipped minimum wage every year until 2027. Once finalized, the tipped minimum wage will match the standard minimum wage. To better understand the impact of increasing the…
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  Not So FAST: April 2023: Analyzing Labor Law Compliance at California Fast Food Restaurants

  April 2023

  A.B. 257, the “Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act,” would create a new regulatory scheme for California’s fast food restaurant industry (“limited-service restaurant” or LSR, to use Census terminology).

  Subsequent to the passage of A.B. 257, over a million California voters signed a petition in support of a referendum on the law. The law will now appear on the 2024 ballot for…
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  State Impacts of a $15 Tipped Minimum Wage

  November 2022

  Since the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 failed in the U.S. Senate, fights over the minimum wage – especially for tipped restaurant employees – have moved to the states. Anti-tip credit activists have pledged to implement similar provisions at the state level, including eliminating states’ existing tip credit systems in favor of a flat $15 minimum wage. New analysis from Drs. William Even (Miami…
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  Survey of Economists on the Impact of the FAST Recovery Act

  August 2022

  To better understand economists’ views of the potential impacts of adopting California’s Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act (AB 257) on the fast-food restaurant industry, a survey of U.S. economists was conducted in August 2022. Conducted by Dr. Lloyd Corder of CorCom, Inc., Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, the online survey was sent to a list of 658 economists. The survey was…
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  Employment, Earnings, and Poverty in the Full-Service Restaurant Sector

  August 2022

  The Fair Labor Standards Act outlines the current tipping system in the United States, whereby customer-facing employees earning tips for their service are paid a required minimum base wage ($2.13 per hour at the federal level) in addition to the tips they earn. The gap between this base tipped wage and the regular federal minimum wage for non-tipped employees is called a “tip credit,” which…
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  Not So FAST: Analyzing Labor Law Compliance at California Fast Food Restaurants: Compiled from California Department of Industrial Relations data

  August 2022

  A.B. 257, the “Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act,” would create a new regulatory scheme for California’s fast food restaurant industry (“limited-service restaurant” or LSR, to use Census terminology). This novel arrangement is ostensibly necessary because the limited-service restaurant industry is allegedly more prone to labor law violations than other industries. Yet a statement comparing working conditions in this industry to conditions in…