Dear Friend,

?

Today we testified about our new report that highlights just how much the Department of Employment Services fails tipped workers.

?

CHECKED OUT: How DOES Collects and Then Ignores Evidence of Wage Theft

There will still be a two-tier tipped wage system in DC until July 2023.?Until then, DOES is supposed to protect workers by requiring employers to report workers' wages and then using the reports to find violations. Long story short: DOES does neither, and workers suffer.

Only 547 businesses reported into the Tip Portal in the year we studied.
Yet, the rates of wage theft we found were staggering.

There are over 20,000 tipped workers in DC. They rely on customers to pay part of their wage. But employers and the government are supposed to ensure that they are also meeting minimum wage standards.?

It also appears that DOES does little if anything to address the wage theft that is reported. The same employers repeatedly told DOES they paid workers less than the DC tipped minimum wage.

DC has some of the strongest laws in the country. It has access to thousands of data points about workers' wages. And yet, they allow wage theft to continue without meaningful action. We don't need better laws, we need better enforcement.?

Read the full report. And tip your server.?