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Restaurant workers, advocates, and others who support an increase in D.C.’s minimum wage will convene tomorrow evening at the DC Chamber of Commerce. They plan to deliver a letter to the Chamber after a District judge ruled last month that residents can’t vote on a $15 minimum wage on November’s ballot.
Tomorrow’s protest, beginning at 4:30 p.m., is hosted by the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, a group that co-chairs the coalition DC for $15, as well as Jobs with Justice.
About 250 people are expected to attend, says ROC United spokesperson Eric Conrad. While the group has held protests in D.C. over the years, this is its first action of this size specifically supporting increasing the city’s minimum wage, he continued.
Last spring, a coalition of activist groups launched a campaign to get a measure on the ballot for a $15 minimum wage in the District. In July, the D.C. Board of Elections approved language for a ballot initiative, allowing activists to go out and gather the more than 20,000 signatures necessary to secure a vote.
But Harry Wingo, then the head of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, sued; he argued that the three-member board wasn’t “properly constituted.” A judge sided with Wingo, saying that the board wasn’t properly appointed and thus the initiative was improperly approved.
The ruling came a week after a Washington City Paper poll that said seven in ten residents “definitely support” a $15 per hour minimum wage by 2020.
In 2013, the D.C. Council passed a law raising the minimum wage from $8.25 to $11.50 by 2016 through gradual year-by-year increases. After this year’s hike, the minimum wage will be indexed to inflation from here on out.
But under the proposed ballot initiative, the wage would continue rising according to the following schedule: $12.50 in 2017, $13.25 in 2018, $14 in 2019, and $15 in 2020. The initiative would also raise the minimum for tipped workers to $15 by 2024.
