EPI Research

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  The First Birthday of California’s $20 Fast Food Wage: Over 16,000 Jobs Lost, Price Increases, Restaurants Closed

  April 2025

  A.B. 1228 enacted a $20 minimum wage and standards-setting council for California’s fast food industry. The law was signed in September 2023 and went into effect starting April 1, 2024. Soon after Governor Gavin Newsom’s signing of the law, restaurants, customers, and employees alike began bracing for its impacts, even before April. Headlines broke as early as October 2023 following the signing, in which operators…
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  Measuring the Fallout of Initiative 82: The Consequences of Tip Credit Elimination in the District of Columbia

  January 2025

  Initiative 82 was a ballot measure backed by One Fair Wage and opposed by local tipped restaurant workers. The measure passed at the ballot in 2022, and began scheduled wage hikes on May 1, 2023, followed by additional increases July 1, 2023 and July 1, 2024. While these increases are scheduled to continue until the District’s tip credit no longer exists, the city’s restaurants and…
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  Union-Backed Researchers Miss The Mark On California’s $20 Fast Food Wage

  November 2024

  Recent reports released by the University of California-Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Education (IRLE) and The Shift Project, a Berkeley IRLE-funded outfit run by Harvard Kennedy School’s Daniel Schneider and UC-San Francisco’s Kristen Harknett, claim California’s new $20 minimum wage for fast food restaurants has not hurt restaurant operators, employees, or consumers. Not only do these claims run counter to reports dating back…
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  Do Higher Tipped Minimum Wages Reduce Race, Ethnic, or Gender Earnings Gaps for Restaurant Workers?

  September 2024

  In recent years, labor activists have invested considerable financial resources in campaigns to eliminate what’s known as the tip credit. The tip credit represents the difference between a set base hourly wage for restaurant employees who regularly earn substantial tips, and the regular minimum wage rate. This difference counts regular tip income toward the minimum wage requirement. Legally, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and…
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  Crisis in California: A Survey of Fast Food Employers' Responses to California's $20 Minimum Wage

  July 2024

  Effective April 1, 2024, many limited-service restaurant operators (also referred to as “fast food” or “quick-service” restaurants) in California are required to pay employees a minimum wage of at least $20 per hour. The law that increased this limit also allows for future increases to the quick service minimum wage based on recommendations of a Fast-Food Council. While those subject to the law may be…
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  Policy Snapshot Chicago: Chicago’s Restaurants Already Impacted by Tip Credit Elimination

  June 2024

  In the fall of 2023, Chicago’s City Council passed a full tip credit elimination bill that will go into effect on July 1, 2024. The law will raise the city’s minimum wage for tipped restaurant employees from $9.48 per hour to $11.02 per hour on that date, and continue to increase annually until restaurant employers will be required to pay the full minimum wage (currently…