in 2024, MA floated a ballot question, Question 5, that would have raised sub-minimum (i.e. non-tipped) wage for restaurant employees. and obviously restaurant owners as a class immediately came out against this initiative, saying that it would "force" them to raise their menu prices to pay these new wages. which, like, obviously they're going to say that and i wasn't surprised by it, it's just like how landlords say they'll be "forced" to raise rent every time a new law makes their life harder, neither of them are being "forced" to do jack shit, they're just actively threatening voters under them (tentants/employees). that wasn't new or disappointing, i was expecting it, whatever.
what did very much disappoint me was how many restaurant employees i saw in favor of being paid less. and not even in a "well id like to vote for it but i'm actually stupid enough to believe my boss when they say they'll Have To raise prices and Have To pay me less than id make with tips so clearly id be better off if it doesn't pass", that's just garden-variety stupidity and incuriousity and if i got mad about that every time i encountered it my heart would explode. the part that actually gave me pause was the amount of waiters/waitresses openly saying "yeah i currently make more money by guilt-tripping customers into paying the majority of my wage than i can make by legally compelling my boss to pay a similar amount, so im just gonna keep doing that lol. fuck all my coworkers who don't get as much tips as me and especially fuck the customers subsidizing my boss's cheapskate ass by paying an effective 20% markup on the listed price [you know, the thing owners were threatening to do as a deterrent]"














