Wrong time to mess with Baltimore’s tipped workers

A trade association in Washington, D.C., recently surveyed area restaurants to gauge their economic outlook. The results were extremely discouraging: 40% of full-service casual eateries expect to close by year’s end. And that’s on top of the disappearing bottom line: The same survey of more than 200 dining establishments found 62% reporting lower profits in 2024. To suggest this is a challenging time in the food service is merely to state the obvious. Obviously, D.C. is D.C., but Baltimore is not immune to the same economic forces including recent job losses (especially those of federal workers and contractors), rising food costs and other tariff-related economic woes.

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