Massachusetts will not be raising pay for tipped employees to the state minimum wage after voters across the Commonwealth overwhelmingly denied Question 5 on Election Day.

“We just want to let everyone know we won and we won big,” said Chris Keohane, general consultant for the Committee to Protect Tips.

Keohane and the Committee to Protect Tips, the opposition group, declared victory just after 10 p.m., with results showing a commanding 30% margin – 65% to 35% rejecting the initiative.

Just 14% of total votes had been counted, per the Associated Press.

One Fair Wage, the national advocacy group behind the initiative, told the Herald just before 10:45 that it was still waiting for results from Springfield and other larger cities and towns to come in before conceding.

Servers and bartenders will continue to make the subminimum for tipped employees of $6.75 an hour.

If approved, the wage for tipped employees would have gradually increased until it met the state minimum wage of $15 an hour in 2029. Employers would have decided whether their employees participate in a tip pool, meaning tips could have been distributed to non-service staffers.

Currently, tipped employees can be paid $6.75 an hour provided that their tips bring them at least to the current minimum wage of $15 per hour.

The 65% of Bay State voters who denied the ballot initiative followed the opposition that scores of restaurateurs, bartenders and servers conveyed in the days and weeks leading up to Tuesday.

Stephen Clarke, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, soaked in the celebration at Hobson’s Bar & Kitchen in Allston.

“There’s a lot of people to thank, especially the servers and bartenders,” Clarke said. They’re the ones who raised their hands and said ‘Absolutely not.’”

Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, both of whom worked as servers before their political careers, opposed the measure.

One Fair Wage brought the measure to the ballot after garnering enough support last spring.

Supporters of the measure argued the initiative would have addressed worker exploitation and wage theft.

California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Washington, D.C. have all implemented One Fair Wage policies.

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