(Image: CHS)
The owner of Seattle’s most prolific marijuana shop is apologizing after paying several of his employees below Seattle’s minimum wage. Around 10 budtenders at Uncle Ike’s had been getting paid $10 an hour, 50 cents below the city’s minimum wage as of January, according to owner Ian Eisenberg. Eisenberg said it was a simple misunderstanding, but one employee says it took her multiple attempts to rectify the situation.
The issue at the 23rd and Union pot shop was first reported on by The Stranger, which revealed a series of text messages budtender Nicole Stotts had with a payroll manager. The manager, contracted by Uncle Ikes, erroneously told the the employee that her tips counted towards her wage.
Seattle does not have a so-called tip credit. The 2015 minimum wage law phases in a $15 minimum wage over several years with different timelines depending on the size of a business and the benefits it offers. Uncle Ike’s is required to pay its employees at least $10.50 an hour as it pays for medical benefits.
“We owned it,” Eisenberg said. “The city made it so incredibly clear, that’s why it’s so embarrassing.”
Eisenberg told CHS that he has since paid his employees a combined $2,800 in back pay and gave a raise to his staff of 60. Eisenberg said the incident has also prompted him to hire an in-house human resources manager.
Uncle Ike’s is a CHS advertiser.
Stotts quit Uncle Ikes after the mixup. She told The Stranger she was frustrated that the most successful pot shop in Seattle was paying “poverty wages.” Eisenberg said he has not been contacted by the city’s Office of Labor Standards, which enforces the minimum wage law. The office does not discuss open investigations. Since the minimum wage law went into effect last year through April, OLS received 481 employee inquiries into wage theft.
City Hall, along with labor and business interests, have turned to the next big issue affecting the city’s workers: secure scheduling. Last fall, local progressive labor advocacy organization Working Washington and Starbucks baristas protested their inconsistent and unpredictable work schedules, which labor advocates say act as barriers for low-income workers to scheduling life necessities like college classes or childcare or budgeting living expenses.
Drug trafficking conviction for Seattle Cross owner
The former owner of several fraudulent medical marijuana dispensaries, including one that operated on Capitol Hill, was sentenced in federal court Friday to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking.
Lance Gloor owned Seatte Cross near 23rd and E Madison, a dispensary that was twice raided by federal agents. According to federal prosecutors, Gloor illegally profited millions of dollars from his chain of four Cross dispensaries and flouted state medical marijuana laws.
Law enforcement officials first raided Seattle Cross in 2011. Gloor told officials he was leaving the business, but a followup investigation and raid in 2013 revealed he was still an owner at the Capitol Hill location.
“Far from being a marijuana crusader helping sick people, this defendant was nothing but a black marketeer,” said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes in a statement. “Despite repeated notice that his marijuana business was illegal under state and federal law, he continued to use lies, threats and intimidation to try to cover his tracks and make as much money as he could.”
While Gloor waited for trial, prosecutors say he repeatedly tried to intimidate witnesses and violated court orders. In a statement following the sentencing in Tacoma, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton called Gloor a “flim-flam man” and said he manipulates those around him.
Wait, the employee took a job that pays $10.50 an hour then complained that the $10.50 = poverty wages? Granted she was shorted 50 cents per hour and had to argue about it from what sounds like a payroll staff error. But the bigger issue is, why take a job that pays $10.50 then complain it only pays $10.50 and quit?
So to be clear, to advocate for a higher minimum wage you must make more than minimum wage?
we already passed a higher minimum wage tho
It sounded like she was trying to advocate for a living wage for herself and was ignored by management. I think the the bigger question is, who makes 1.5 million dollars a month and pays 10 dollars/hr? That is 400 dollars a week before taxes. Could you live on that?
Starbucks pays equally badly, I believe.
And no, I don’t agree this is a wage anyone can live on without sharing digs & not eating much (kind of like when I worked for min wage for a decade while trying to get an education so I could earn more). I’m not saying she shouldn’t advocate for higher wages. I just found it odd that she took the job then quit fairly quickly because of the wage which was a known factor. If the article said she quit the job for the 1st higher paying gig that came along I’d understand her motives more I guess.
Starbucks pays minimum wage, but is one of the only companies offering benefits (401K, medical, dental, and vision, stock, grants, PTO, free drinks and food while on the clock, and a free pound of coffee each week, according to Glass Doog). for those same employees. So they’re doing better than people making nearly double their wages.
I’m not sure if I’m more appalled that selling pot is a tipped position, or that the term “budtender” is an actual thing.
Anyway, good for Ike’s for owning and rectifying the problem, even if it took some time.
The owner is making millions of dollars and yet can’t pay his employees $15/hr and is passing on their wages to customers through tipping. What a major a-hole.
Correction: Won’t pay them $15/hr, clearly not can’t.
“good” for Ike? for repeatedly ignoring his employee who wanted a legal, living wage? He didn’t care to make things right until she went to the press and the Better Business Bureau.
Where is the rage over Pagliacci’s not paying $15 an hour? Or the mega employer Starbucks? Both should be doing it as well as Ike’s.
Another example of tipping chaos. I’m not tipping someone who reached into a counter and tendered the order.
I would expect a business like this who rakes in the cash to pay its employees fairly well above minimum wage and not rely on customer tips to supplement their employees wage.
Glad they are making the situation right with the employees.
I totally understand this being a position wherein people tip (sometimes). Many many people visiting somewhere like Ike’s are people who haven’t indulged in 20 or more years. The number of options available now is overwhelming compared to what was around black mkt 20 yrs ago. This is especially true in medical MJ shops for people who are actually buying pot for actual medical reasons. Budtenders can be very helpful sorting through dozens of options. Sometimes it’s not just as simple as pulling something from behind the counter like buying a burger at McDonalds.
I bought a camera a few months ago – the last time I bought a camera was in the ’80s. I needed a lot of help from the sales person, and he spent a good 20 minutes on me. I did not think to leave a tip.
What is the difference between this and buying pot? Or a bottle of booze, if you want a comparable product? I don’t tip the woman who helps me find the right wine pairing for a dinner.
It’s funny – I actually don’t mind tipping as an industry – but the expansion of who expects tips is ridiculous.
I feel its the opposite. The concept is no longer new. Most of their clientele are seasoned users who know what they want and want and are in/out. Only the infrequent tourist seems to be lost in their vast selection.
The couple times I’ve asked questions they seemed to tell me what I want to hear so they can usher me out and get on to the next customer.
I’ll continue to visit but won’t ever tip.
Timmy, I don’t disagree with anything you said for situations you described. If you walk in, ask for something, and they get it for you, I would agree that doesn’t deserve a tip. Furthermore, I haven’t seen any budtenders automatically expect one, anyway. I have only taken out of town friends there, never purchased from Ike’s. My own purchases have been from a medical MJ dispensary. I’ve tipped several times, and I’ve felt they deserved it because of the extra help they’ve given me selecting the best product (high CBD but low THC). But I also got more personalized service in the much smaller shop than I would at Ike’s.
The reason why no one thinks to tip a retail person is because during the “golden age” of retail, most salespeople worked at least partly on commission. I had an aunt who worked for Sears for decades, selling small kitchen appliances. She was a charming lady who could sell you the shirt on your back, and she made a decent living.
Nowadays even “nice” stores ldon’t really have sales staff as much as they have wage slaves who make minimum wage.
eisenberg is a total sleeze and i hope his shop closes forever, this article is further proof that he’s a greedy slimebag- another privileged white man benefiting from and participating in gentrification , exploiting a neighborhood and community that doesn’t want him , and ripping off his employees, barf
agreed.
Except you don’t speak for the community. Some of us in the community value Ian’s investments and contributions to that formerly-derelict corner, which has never been safer than it is now.
And many many people “want him” as shown by the daily crowds of customers who line up for his store.
lol, they want cheap cannabis, you dope.
Nope. Not just for cheap dope. Even though I don’t shop there, many of us in the immediate and extended neighborhood are totally supportive of what Ike has done for that intersection. No more business owners blown away behind the counter, no arsonists setting fire to the buildings. Neighbor Lady actually has customers inside instead of just shady types outside on the sidewalk. That corner has definitely never looked better, at least in the last 20 years. And the pear-clutching, complaining church next door sure hasn’t done shit.
*pearl-clutching
I wonder how Ian Eisnenberg (Ike) can continue to ignore and undermine his neighbors, underpay his employees, and spin all his toxic behavior into gold with the help of his media contacts? If anyone else broke the law and did not pay minimum wage, they would get a lot more than an “aw shucks” story in The Stranger.
Developers like Eisenberg are pushing out people who can’t afford to stay, people like his employees who make 10.50/hr. I think the side discussion if bud tenders deserve tips aside, the burden of following the law to pay employees a living wage rests with the owner. “Forgetting” to do it sure sounds like a cop out.
Could you afford to live in the Central District or any other Seattle neighborhood if you earned 10.50/hr? What is going on here is criminal. It is maddening too how he pretends not to know what his protestors are saying.The hypocrisy is rich. Hear them. They have a point, and you know it. GIve something back to the community- a scholarship, an endowment, a living wage to those who work for you – something for the neighborhood. SMH
That corner at 23rd and Union has never been in better shape than it is now, because of Ian’s successful businesses and his investments in improved security/conditions.
He gave that back to the community and helped this neighborhood a lot.
I heard about his security team and how they verbally attacked customers with homophobic slurs. I don’t feel any safer because of them.
I feel safer now that the 23rd and Union murder and arson corner has become a bustling commerce center.
Seems like the alleged homophobia by Ike’s security hasn’t affected business, judging by those lines.
Sounds Good, Ian, err I mean “nah”
Yeah, except Ian has no problem posting here as himself and does so often, including posting his contact info. So….?
hahaha! I was thinking the same thing.
FYI – I sometimes shop at Ponder, never Ike’s. Better product and easier to get in/out, in my opinion.
I’m still waiting for the full tilt to open on 15th. The corner looks like a complete disaster. Or will it be a family fun center again ? Or shoe repair ?
For someone so focussed on running an honest business, the Al Capone like attempts at stopping competition raise some interesting questions.
It is interesting that he has messed with so many local businesses along the way. Some people just want the biggest sand box, all the toys. The sickest scam (in my opinion) was when Eisenberg charged kids (well their parents actually) but encouraged the kids to hold the phone up to the TV while it dialed Santa, via 900 number, at 20 dollars a minute. He lost a multi-million dollar law suit over that and other mail fraud related scams in the 90s. Google it.
Budtender’s Local #1 perhaps? They should be unionized.
You’d think they’d want to be good to their employees so it doesn’t get out that they tamper with their product. Oh wait..
Using the term budtender to imply tipping should come into play just wreaks of a scam. A bartender makes a drink for you so it is customary to tip them. A clerk at a weed store is simply selling a commodity to you the same as vodka, cigarettes, or toilet paper for that matter. By choosing to buy from that vendor you are helping keep that clerk gainfully employed and that is enough. Perhaps just card everyone young on entry and have self-checkout lanes like Fred Meyer.
I agree. Tip jars at retail counters are a fairly new trend and only perpetuate unjust wages. I’ve accepted the custom of tipping someone who makes me a sandwich or latte – even that was almost unheard of three decades ago outside of high-end hotels. But tipping “budtenders” is akin to tipping the guy at 7-11 who sells you smokes. Just say no.
HOWEVER, workers at pot stores should be compensated way above minimum wage. They are taking a substantial amount of personal and professional risk working visibly in a not-altogether-legal industry that a future president could decide arbitrarily to shut down at any moment. (I’m a reluctant HRC supporter but I wouldn’t put it past her to institute a crackdown.) Considering the profit involved, $30 an hour for a “budtender” seems entirely reasonable. I sure wouldn’t do it for less than that.