SEATTLE — In Seattle, restaurant owners are allowed to pay their tipped employees less than the minimum wage as long as they earn enough in tips to make up the difference.
“Restaurant owners and restaurant operators are always in fear of making sure people want to come in the door," said Director of Full Service Workers Alliance Simone Barron.
But the debate is heating up because on January 1, that’s changing, meaning employers will be on the hook for the full minimum wage amount.
Soon restaurant workers’ wages could go up by $3 or more per hour, by far the biggest uptick since Seattle became the first major city in the U.S. to adopt a $15 minimum wage a decade ago.
It’s no longer just about making mouthwatering dishes or making your customers happy.
“It's becoming more and more difficult for us to make a living," said Barron.
It’s why in 2015, leaders in Seattle’s labor and business sectors negotiated a minimum wage for them but some are worried that those good intentions will backfire.
“For some operators that's gonna be absolutely devastating," Barron said. “They have to pay for these high labor increases, specifically, in some way. So they're going to roll that into higher menu prices, which means in this economy, less customers,"
But not everyone agrees that raising menu prices is the only option.
“Your model might change. You know, you might, you might do a service charge," said Chef Ethan Stowell
Stowell thinks it's time to get away from the tipping model and add built-in service charges to people’s checks instead.
Barron has concerns about the transparency of things like service charges.
“You may not be able to know how much tips are coming out of your pocket to pay for the back-of-the-house workers," said Barron.
And she worries about profitability.
"Far less than what servers like myself could make under a tipping model," Barron said.
She thinks this minimum wage hike could mean a future full of service charges.
“The restaurant injury industry has had 10 years to plan for this,” said Stowell. “I'm in the camp of let's just move forward with the plan”