In WAMU’s guide to Initiative 77, DCWageLaw managing attorney Justin Zelikovitz discusses how Initiative 77 would benefit victims of wage theft:

Employers underpay tipped workers on a regular basis, says wage-law attorney Justin Zelikovitz, either because they don’t understand the tip-credit system or they are taking advantage of its complexity. … To calculate whether a tipped worker is earning at least minimum wage, employers have to add up their total weekly earnings — including their base wage and tips — and determine whether it averages out to at least $12.50 an hour. “A lot of employers aren’t sophisticated enough to get it right,” Zelikovitz says. “It’s a system that we see employers, particularly smaller employers, get wrong time and time again.”