Voters nationwide never saw the word “restaurant” on their election ballots on Tuesday. Still, many voted on ballot proposals that, if passed, would have significantly affected the industry’s profits.

“The big chains all have government affairs departments and lobbyists, especially organizations like the National Restaurant Association [NRA],” said Peter Romeo, who has been covering the restaurant industry since 1984 and is an editor at large for several restaurant industry publications, including Restaurant Business Magazine.

“These organizations like the NRA serve as watchdogs for the industry. They don’t pick a presidential candidate. They stay out of it and keep their options open, focusing on state government.”

Tuesday’s election results were mostly positive for the restaurant industry as ballot proposals for minimum wage increases were defeated in Massachusetts and California.

In Massachusetts, voters overwhelmingly rejected Ballot Question 5, which, if passed, would have raised the minimum wage for tipped workers over five years until reaching the state’s requirement of $15 an hour. It would have required distributing pooled tips across all restaurant employees who don’t serve as managers. The ballot question was struck down overwhelmingly, 64 percent to 36 percent.

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Romeo told The Epoch Times that unions representing restaurant workers were increasingly invested in some ballot issues, such as the one in the Bay State that was put before voters on Tuesday.

“It was a pretty good showing from a restaurant industry standpoint. The biggest of all of them was the ballot issue in Massachusetts. There’s feeling that the unions spent a lot of money to try and push that one through and the fact they failed pretty handily will make them reground and rethink their approach,” he said. “These are really key issues in the industry and make a major difference in the profit margins of full-service restaurateurs.”

However, according to some who watched the debate over increasing hourly wages for tipped workers in Massachusetts, a robust restaurant lobby swayed public opinion.

“It really wasn’t a minimum wage ballot question; it was a question of who is going to pay, the customers or the restaurants. The local restaurants took control of the narrative and the worker supporters came in from out of state,” Evan Horowitz, director of the Center of State Policy Analysis at Boston’s Tufts University, told The Epoch Times.

“What it came down to was the people voting had a sense that it was a choice between helping tipped workers or helping the restaurants, with both groups needing help in this economy since the pandemic. They voted to keep the restaurant industry as it stands.”

What may have come as a surprise to some was the apparent defeat of California Proposition 32, which would have raised the minimum wage for employers with 26 or more employees to $17 immediately and $18 on January 1, 2025. Those employers with 25 or fewer employees would be expected to raise the minimum wage for its employees to $17 on Jan. 1, 2025, and to the $18 level by Jan. 1, 2026. It would have maintained California’s standing as having the highest state minimum wage in the nation.

As of Wednesday night, the margin of defeat was at 4 percent, with more than half of the votes counted. The proposal was aggressively opposed by the California Restaurant Association, among others.

“That was a significant ballot proposal because California tends to be the bellwether for the rest of the country and already has the highest state minimum wage. If it went through, it would definitely not be good for the restaurant industry,” Romeo said.

“A wage proposal in California has always been a slam dunk. The industry took solace in interpreting that the vote was maybe an indication that consumers in the state are getting fed up with the impact of higher minimum wages and it could hurt them by pushing prices even higher.”

However, it was not all good news for restaurant owners looking to keep costs down. Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly (57 percent) approved Proposition A, which will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 while guaranteeing paid sick leave to workers.

With or without proposals and propositions affecting restaurant bottom lines, most admit that the business is not for the weak. According to the National Restaurant Association, about 60 percent of restaurants fail within their first year, and 80 percent fail within five years.

Horowitz says that what may occur with future government intervention in restaurant pay and tip levels is a changing of the guard regarding restaurant ownership.

“The restaurant industry attracts entrepreneurial people who are passionate about what they’re doing and they learn to make their finances work. But if [Massachusetts Ballot Question 5] passed, the financial structure would change for restaurants, and people who have done this for a long while might have shut down,” he said.

“But then there would be younger people who see new opportunities here in the industry to take their place.”