One Fair Wage has lobbied and succeeded to bring Question 5 to vote in our state of Massachusetts. Please ask any tipped worker that you encounter before the Nov. 5 vote and listen carefully to their opinion regarding Question 5 and how it would affect their incomes if it does pass.

Currently, restaurant employers have to meet the $15 an hour wage if their tipped employees did not earn enough in tips to meet $15 an hour. Consequences of Question 5 passing to your favorite restaurants will be devastating.

It’s a trick question that has two outcomes if passed. As an employer, if Question 5 passes, they now can force their tipped employees to pool their hard-earned tips and distribute them as they wish to their employees, and that could be a cause of dissension among workers, as well as a hardship to employers.

Payroll will increase and the price of the items served in their establishments will go up to help offset the increased costs of payroll. Now in all reality, surviving a yes vote on Question 5 will take Herculean efforts. Let’s face it, most customers will not tolerate the increased costs to dine in their favorite restaurants due to Question 5 passing. Independent restaurants have small margins and if they’ve survived COVID-19 and inflation, they are now looking down the barrel of Question 5 passing: Kapow!

Please do educate yourself by asking those who are truly affected by Question 5 and try not to blindly believe the words from a lobbyist group that most likely never worked in the tipped services industry, but somehow seem to know what is best for them.

Annie and Jim Greco

Restauranteurs of the Bluebonnet Diner, Hatfield