Seven states and jurisdictions where OFW is fighting to end the subminimum wage and raise the floor for restaurant workers. Click a state, or jump to the section. These are the same campaigns running through the Living Wage For All coalition that OFW co-leads at livingwageforall.org.
Rep. Ro Khanna speaks at the federal Living Wage For All Act launch. Photo: Demetrius Freeman.
California Restaurant Workers
California already pays tipped workers the full state minimum wage plus tips — but the cost of living has outrun the floor. OFW is leading the coalition for a true living wage in California, backing the $30 ballot fights in Alameda County and Los Angeles and partnering with restaurant operators across the state on the RAISE High Road program. In Alameda County, a worker-led drive gathered more than 100,000 signatures and qualified the measure; after the Board of Supervisors delayed the vote, workers are organizing toward the election.
Our research shows California restaurants thrive at higher wage floors. The state's small-business restaurant employment growth has outpaced the national average in every year since the state ended its tipped subminimum in the 1970s.
OFW, the Graustein Foundation, and Make the Road CT are launching a statewide Living Wage For All coalition in Connecticut in summer 2026. The target: $25/hour for all Connecticut workers and an end to the tipped subminimum wage frozen at $6.38/hr since 2017.
Connecticut’s minimum wage is $16.94 — but the cost of living is $25.28 for a single adult. SB 221 cleared committee in 2024; the coalition is launching to finish what the committee started.
OFW D.C. ballot organizing — the same playbook is running again for $25.
Washington D.C. Restaurant Workers
D.C. proved One Fair Wage works. After Initiative 82, restaurant employment hit an all-time record (30,633 in April 2025) — the highest in 35 years — and tips did not decline. Now OFW is co-leading the next push: a $25/hour minimum wage for all D.C. workers, no subminimum carve-outs, on the Initiative 87 (2027 special election). Polling at 80%.
The coalition: OFW, UNITE HERE Local 25, SEIU-1199, UFCW-400, and the Working Families Party.
Illinois OFW members at the federal Living Wage For All Act launch. Photo: Demetrius Freeman.
Illinois Restaurant Workers
Chicago passed the One Fair Wage Ordinance in 2023 — a historic OFW win phasing out the tipped subminimum. Restaurant employment in Chicago has grown since the change, not declined. The City Council paused the phase-out in May 2026, pushing full elimination to 2028 and 2030; the ordinance stands and workers are organizing to restore the timeline. OFW is also organizing to build support for a statewide floor.
Illinois has been one of OFW's deepest-organized states, with multiple polling reports, a strong worker network, and a coalition of Chicago restaurant operators who've publicly endorsed the statewide push.
The cross-border D.C. model after Initiative 82. Maryland is next. Photo: Demetrius Freeman.
Maryland Restaurant Workers
Maryland is the Atlantic-coast next domino after D.C.'s historic 2022 Initiative 82 win. OFW is leading the Maryland coalition to end the tipped subminimum and raise the floor for 100,000+ restaurant workers — with polling, worker testimony, and a strong network of Maryland legislators.
Cross-border data from D.C. is decisive: restaurant employment and tips have hit record highs in D.C. since I-82 phased in, despite restaurant-lobby predictions of doom. Maryland workers are watching that data and asking when it's their turn.
OFW Michigan organizing — the network behind the 2024 ballot win.
Michigan Restaurant Workers
Michigan workers won One Fair Wage at the ballot in 2018; the legislature gutted it and the state Supreme Court restored it in 2024. A February 2025 legislative deal then preserved a tipped subminimum wage instead of ending it. OFW is fighting to finish the job and build toward $25 for all by 2028 with UAW.
163,000+ Michigan tipped workers — 74% women, 21% people of color. The fight is the most contested in the country.
50%
Where the Feb 2025 deal halted the tipped phase-out
94% of New York restaurant workers support One Fair Wage — an OFW poll OFW has run multiple times with consistent results. The Raise the Wage Act would deliver it, with a $30 floor by 2030 and an end to the tipped subminimum wage. OFW is the lead organizer on the campaign.
New York is also the densest concentration of OFW research: gender equity briefs, harassment studies, holiday-season disruption analyses, and the long arc of women excluded from minimum-wage protections in the state. The case is air-tight. The fight is in Albany.
The LW4A coalition added four campaigns this summer: Nome, Alaska — a student-led alliance formed by high school juniors and seniors, petitioning to raise the local minimum to $25 from the Alaska state floor, which rose to $14 on July 1, 2026 (LW4A Nome →); Massachusetts — coalition forming for a $25 statewide floor (LW4A MA →); Rhode Island — a coalition is forming for $25 for all, with OFW contributing (LW4A RI →); and Wisconsin — still stuck at the frozen $7.25 federal floor; a coalition is organizing to change it, with OFW contributing (LW4A WI →).
One state at a time. Until $2.13 is history.
Don't see your state? OFW supports campaigns in many more — call us if you're organizing.
Rep. Ro Khanna speaks at the federal Living Wage For All Act launch. Photo: Demetrius Freeman.
