LOWELL — State Rep. Rodney Elliott was joined by local restaurant owners and staff outside Cobblestones on Wednesday morning to approve a vote against Question 5, a ballot measure that would increase the minimum wage for tipped restaurant servers.

If passed by voters, Question 5 would require employers of tipped workers to gradually raise their minimum wages to 100% of the state’s $15.50 minimum wage by Jan. 1, 2029. The current minimum wage for tipped workers in Massachusetts is $6.75 per hour. If an employer pays all its employees the state minimum wage, it would also be allowed to pool tips for all workers and distribute them equally to all employees, even non-tipped workers.

Standing in front of Cobblestones, Elliott said he opposes Question 5 because it would “hurt our business.”

“I stand with restaurant owners who are still recovering from some of the effects of COVID. I stand with bartenders, waitresses, and waitresses who want to be compensated for the service they provide,” Elliott said, referring to the common claim that good waiters make more money with tips and sub-minimum wage than they could with just one salary found. minimum wage.

Similar measures have been taken in other states, primarily in the western states, and have proven costly for businesses, Elliott and others said.

“We’ve already seen the effects of what’s going to happen when this question passes, and I don’t want to see it happen in Massachusetts, I certainly don’t want to see it in Lowell,” Elliott said. “These restaurants cannot afford the cost increase, they are expecting a 40 percent increase in payroll in the first year. How can restaurants operating on the border sustain this?”

“The servers don’t want that,” said Cobblestones owner Scott Plath.

“This is an outside group spreading misinformation,” Plath said. “The average wage for servers is over $20 an hour… Ask your servers if they want a change in the law that would affect how they get paid, affecting their bottom line and their pocketbooks. They will tell you ‘no’.”

Also at the meeting was Cobblestones waitress Lillian Patrylo, who has been working in the restaurant industry for six years.

“The reason I really enjoy this industry is because I think it’s an opportunity to earn great wages in an environment where the job market is constantly weeding out people without degrees and people without experience,” Patrylo said. “This is a job you can enter with no experience, get training on the job, and make enough money to support a family.”

Patrylo said servers earn between $20 and $35 an hour depending on the shift, well above the current minimum wage.

Kathy Turner, owner of Turner’s Seafood in Melrose, said Question 5 is a “bad bill” and a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“What’s going to happen if this passes is you’re going to lose your small independent restaurants in Massachusetts,” Turner said. “You will lose business because restaurants create paper-thin margins. If you have to pay servers more and they are the highest-paid people in the building right now, guess who isn’t making more money in the back of the house.”

The main proponent of Question 5 is One Fair Wage, a national nonprofit organization that aims to raise tipped workers’ minimum base wages to match the actual minimum wage; Similar campaigns are being run in some other states. One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman said Wednesday in response to last week’s sentencing of Stavros Papatoniadis, owner of Stash’s Pizza in Boston, for multiple forced labor charges that the ballot question was intended to ensure workers are “protected from exploitation.”

“This case exposes the dark side of an industry that preys on vulnerable workers, especially immigrants, under a two-tier wage system that leaves them at the mercy of abusive employers,” Jayaraman said. “That’s why we’re traveling across the state to improve working conditions for restaurant workers and campaigning for a Yes vote on Question 5.”

In the statement, the OFW said “the current system forces workers to rely on tips to survive, allowing abusive employers to exploit loopholes and avoid paying fair wages.”

OFW held an event at the State Capitol in Boston on Friday to rally support for Question 5 after receiving approval from Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and other elected state officials. The purpose of the rally was to “highlight the growing wage theft crisis in the Massachusetts restaurant industry and expose the corporate-sponsored anti-worker agenda of opponents fighting for fair wages for tipped workers.”

Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, along with Elliott and other elected officials, opposed Question 5, arguing it would lead to lower overall wages for tipped workers.

“We also support our restaurant owners who believe this initiative will harm small businesses and increase costs for customers,” they said in a joint statement Wednesday morning. “That’s why we’re asking voters to carefully consider the harm this issue will do to our servers, our restaurants, our customers, and the Massachusetts economy, and vote No on 5.”

Another rally against Question 5 was held at the State Capitol Wednesday morning, with 16 restaurant workers opposing the measure.

Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.