Waiters Are the Third-Lowest Paid Occupation In Washington DC

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Yesterday I ran across a piece at the Intercept about a campaign to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers in Washington DC, which currently stands at $3.33. The idea behind this, of course, is that waiters and waitresses are able to make up for this low minimum wage via tips, so there’s no reason to pay them the same minimum wage as everyone else. But this got me curious. Counting all those tips, how much do waiters in Washington DC make? Luckily, the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the median wage in DC for 462 different occupations:
There you have it. Waiters make less than parking lot attendants. Less than cashiers. Less than telemarketers. They are the third-lowest paid profession in the entire city. So should they get a raise? It’s hard to see why not.