Denver Mayor Mike Johnston wants to add a 20% service charge to local restaurant tabs — and then tax it — to help restaurants cope with the city’s minimum wage and promote what he called pay equity among tipped and non-tipped employees.
On Monday, Johnston told City Cast Denver, a popular podcast, that he has already been discussing the idea with restaurant owners. He didn’t say whether they are on board. He also did not discuss if increasing people’s dinner costs would decrease restaurant visits.
Johnston has incurred the ire of some local restauranteurs, who this month penned a letter expressing their frustrations with the city for everything from public safety worries and negative perceptions of downtown to parking and infrastructure needs.
They pointed to a series of stabbings on the 16th Street Mall over a January weekend that left two dead and two more injured.
“You ran your entire campaign platform on restoring our Downtown Denver business districts,” Dave Query, owner of Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar, said in his letter to Johnston. “It has gotten worse since you took the position of Mayor, even though you have received $550M towards stewarding it in a different direction.”
He added: “This is the current vibe and energy on our downtown streets, and our long-time LoDo and Larimer guests are now driving to Cherry Creek and NorthField and Golden for dinner and entertainment.”
“We know it’s a challenge,” Johnston told City Cast Denver, noting that restaurant labor costs have increased by 200% over the past decade. “We’ve had 400 restaurants close in Denver over the last three or four years and we know that a big part of that is the increase in the minimum wage, and we want folks to make more money.”
The challenge, he said, is ensuring an equitable and livable wage, while allowing restaurants to thrive.
Johnston said a recent restaurant tour group told him that wage disparities exist across the industry, with tipped servers making as much as $120,000 in annual salary because they have both the city’s minimum wage, plus tips, compared to the back-of-the-house staffers, such as cooks and dishwashers, who, he said, make $40,000.
Hellbound and Down 