Initiative 77
2018 Washington, D.C., ballot measure
Initiative 77 was a voter-approved ballot initiative in Washington, D.C., to phase out the special minimum wage for tipped employees as part of the national Fight for $15 campaign. In the June 2018 primary election, D.C. voters approved Initiative 77 by a margin of 56% to 44%; however, the D.C. Council repealed the initiative in October before it could enter into force. In 2022, a nearly identical Initiative 82 was passed by voters on November 8, 2022, and went into effect the following year.
Background
In 2014, Restaurant Opportunities Center United, a nonprofit organization that advocates for restaurant workers in the United States, said it would ask voters in Washington, D.C., to approve a local ballot measure – Initiative 74 – that would gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2019. It would also increase the tipped minimum wage until it equals the standard wage, which would take place in 2024. The campaign failed to collect the number of signatures required to put the initiative on the ballot.
The next year, the campaign was revived as Initiative 76. More than 70% of D.C. residents supported it, according to a poll conducted by DC Vote and the Washington City Paper. Harry Wingo, then the president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, sued the District of Columbia Board of Elections in an effort to prevent the initiative from appearing on the 2016 ballot. He eventually failed.
The public source identifies “Initiative 77” as 2018 Washington, D.C., ballot measure. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Initiative, Washington and ballot.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Initiative 77”, the useful work is to connect “2018 Washington, D.C., ballot measure” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55391784. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2018, 2022, 2014 and 2019.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Initiative 77”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Initiative 77 primary sources, Initiative 77 archive and Initiative research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Initiative 77”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Initiative 77” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.