Earlier this month, hundreds of restaurant owners and servers traveled to Augusta to weigh in on an issue of great importance to the hospitality industry – the tip credit.

 Last November, Maine voters passed Question 4, which was a three-part question. The new law incrementally raises the minimum wage until it reaches $12 per hour in 2020, phases out the tip credit and indexes our minimum wage, so it will continue to go up each year after it reaches $12. While this one question posed three questions, voters were presented with two options – vote “yes” to all or “no” to all. Many workers who fall into the tip credit category of this new law aren’t necessarily happy to be handed this new “raise.”

 Here’s what various restaurant owners and servers from around southern Maine had to say during the public hearing for three bills that all address the tip credit issue.

 Kristin Lewis Haight, an owner of Clay Hill Farm Restaurant in Kennebunk said, “The tip credit vote threatens the restaurant industry from all sides. … We are a state with 67,000 restaurant jobs; many of them are seasonal. Asking restaurants to pay both front and back of the house more per month, with overtime hours in the season, will force restaurants to make drastic changes…Our longtime servers will lose shifts, and as word spreads that “You don’t have to tip anymore,” they will lose their livelihood. Likely, we will have to close our doors.”

James Warwick, a London, England native that now serves as General Manager of Old Vines Wine Bar in Kennebunk said, “In England, tips are not the norm. They are typically a mere five to ten percent, and even that is only applied at restaurants where guests are eating; for the most part, it excludes bars, cafes and the like. This requires that servers rely on hourly pay as their main source of income…As someone who has worked in both systems, it is clear to see the tip system in the United States is the better of the two.

 “Upon my arrival here in Maine, with my first serving job in the United States, I was earning four times the amount I was making back in London. Industry workers with the ability to earn this kind of income not only provides them with a better lifestyle, but it also legitimizes the industry as a career. … The system, for restaurant workers, was not broken. But it is now. …  Please, reinstate the tip credit.”

Stephanie Babcock of Saco, a graduate of University of Southern Maine who has chosen a profession in the service industry for the past 16 years, said, “My life is about to change drastically if the tip credit is not reinstated. I am extremely concerned about losing upwards of 30percent of my income if my pay is reduced to $12 (from my current $25-$30). … This issue keeps me up at night wondering how I will provide for my son. … We as workers and we as an industry are NOT asking to revoke the people’s choice to raise the minimum wage. We are simply asking for a restoration of the tip credit.”

Finally, Tiffani Bourque from Springvale said, “As an educator, I rely on serving and bartending jobs over the summer to supplement my income over the year…Without the tip credit, I would end up with a summer job in which I’d have to work twice as many hours for half the amount of money. … I think I speak for a lot of young educators like myself when I say that reinstating the tip credit is the right choice.”

 These are only a few examples out of the hundreds who showed up to testify in support of reinstatement. It is now up to the Legislature to reach a decision, and from my experience I can say that it isn’t a decision that will be made lightly.

If you would like to discuss any state or legislative matter, please get in touch with me. You can reach me by email atdcwoodsome@gmail.com or by phone at 287-1505.

 — Sen. David Woodsome represents Maine Senate District 33, which includes communities in York County. He is the chair of the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee and also serves on the State and Local Government Committee.