Small Business Restaurants Succeed With One Fair Wage: A Massachusetts & California Comparative Analysis

Small business restaurants in Massachusetts are struggling to find staff in what is currently the worst staffing crisis in the industry’s history. With over 250 restaurants in Massachusetts having raised wages to at least the full minimum wage with tips on top for tipped workers in order to recruit staff, and many of these restaurants have joined forces with workers calling for Massachusetts lawmakers to pass pending policy to end the subminimum wage for tipped workers at the state and county level.1 This brief compares the experience of small businesses and minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBE’s) in Massachusetts, a subminimum wage state, and states that require all restaurants to pay One Fair Wage — a full minimum wage with tips on top.