Metro Detroit bartenders and servers concerned about law that would end tipping

On Friday, bartenders and servers from across metro Detroit came together here at Townhouse Birmingham to voice their concerns about a new state law that would get rid of the tipping system.

“We would be doing the same job for essentially a lot less, ” said Brian Williams, bartender at Buffalo Wild Wings.

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Brian Williams is a bartender at Buffalo Wild Wings in Lake Orion.

He says without tips, he’s going to be making significantly less money.

“Right now, I work 3 to 4 days a week because I’m in a full-time nursing program so for me it’ll just be trying to figure out how to make that money like the same amount I do now while working as minimal hours as I can so I can give that focus to my studies,” said Williams.

When this new law goes into effect in February, it will increase the minimum wage in Michigan and also phase out the tipping.

“With cash tips on the server/bartender wage, we still average a lot more than minimum wage,” said Williams.

Williams isn’t the only one concerned about the law.

His co-worker, Kacey Mullins, says she believes ending the tipping system will hurt small businesses.

“Small businesses barely have enough money to pay the servers the minimum wage that it is right now, and they're not going to get as good of clientele coming in to pay their servers because their servers won’t be there for them so a lot of small businesses will have to close their doors,” said Mullins.

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7 News Detroit reporter Tiarra Braddock wanted to know how the new law would impact customers so she reached out to Wayne State Economics professor Shooshan Danagoulian.

“From a customer’s point of view, what they can expect is an introduction of a service fee within their restaurant bill. So they’re not going likely to see increases of the prices of food because restaurants are likely to try to absorb as much of it as they can,” said Danagoulian.

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Meanwhile, Mullins and Williams hope that state lawmakers hear their concerns and repeal the law before it takes effect.

“Listen to the people from the industry,” said Williams. “I think maybe this was started with good intention, I just don’t think there’s enough voice from the community.”

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