Seven years later, $15 Now has raised the minimum wage across the board in Seattle
A marcher at a 2013 rally for the $15 minimum in Seattle (Images: CHS)
The seven-year plan to raise Seattle’s minimum wage to $15 has finally come to fulfillment, and local small businesses, beleaguered by the pandemic, are rising to meet the new benchmark.
Unanimously approved by the Seattle City Council in 2014, Chapter 14.19 required businesses in Seattle to incrementally raise their minimum wage each year until reaching $15 per hour over seven years. At the beginning of this year, Seattle’s minimum wage increased to $16.69 per hour for large employers with more than 500 employees. Small businesses with less than 500 employees are required to pay $15 per hour only if they pay $1.69 per hour towards medical benefits, or the employee earns $1.69 per hour in tips. If neither conditions apply, the small business is required to pay $16.69 per hour. Going forward, minimum wage increases will be in keeping with inflation. Right now, Seattle’s minimum wage is the second-highest in the U.S., just 15 cents behind Emeryville, Calif.
The $15 minimum wage was a central part of Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s campaign in 2013. At this time, Sawant has not replied to CHS’s requests to discuss the milestone.
Mark Rosén, acting president and CEO of the GSBA, pointed out that the wage increase was initially approved in a very different time. No one could have anticipated COVID-19 and the precarious position Capitol Hill retailers and restaurants would endure.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤
Some businesses like The Wandering Goose couldn’t get the support they needed from the city and shuttered for good. Rosén said that for businesses just struggling to keep the lights on, the wage increase could force difficult decisions.
“If you’re just hanging on, it’s just another thing that might mean you can’t retain all of your employees,” Rosén said about the wage increase. “You never know when the next punch is the one that knocks you out.”
Jacque Coe of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance said Seattle bars and restaurants are struggling to survive, and it’s become increasingly more expensive to do so even before the wage increase. Adapting to COVID-19 for restaurants could mean outdoor dining construction, unemployment insurance rates, PPE purchases, remodeling of indoor spaces, and takeout packaging.
“The minimum wage increase is just one more increased expense restaurants will have to manage at a time when revenues are down, indoor dining is closed, and no date to reopen or meaningful relief is in sight,” she said. “Seattle bars and restaurants need a clear plan to reopen at a profitable level and substantive financial relief from all levels of government to restore business and bring employees back to work.”
But Capitol Hill business owners say this is a necessary step to greater equity in Seattle. Joey Burgess, owner and operator of Queer/Bar, Grims Provisions, and The Cuff, is unequivocally in favor of the march to $15.
“Every one of my team members deserves a living wage,” he said. “Low-wage jobs are disproportionately held by people of color, women and immigrants, so the wage increase in Seattle is also a win for racial, gender and social equality . . . I’d rather see our local government be creative and issue property tax credits to landlords who provided rent forgiveness, or rent reduction to retail tenants, or waive all 2021 business license fees. Any additional relief in licenses, fees, and taxes will positively impact our businesses and hopefully save hours for workers.”
Molly Moon Neitzel, founder of Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream chain, is already a few steps ahead of the increase. Although Molly Moon’s discontinued tipping in 2018, mooncrew members start at $18 per hour. After six months of employment, employees are eligible for Career Pathways, an in-house training that can lead to positions at $23.50 per hour. Other benefits include a 401k program, subsidized transit passes, and paid family or medical leave. The company also provides free healthcare for employees who work 20 hours a week or more. During COVID-19 the company suspended the hours minimum, so anyone who was already insured will keep their plan despite decreases in hours. During the pandemic, Molly Moon’s has also provided $100 gift cards to Safeway to any employee who needed them, no questions asked.
“I was a political activist before I started Molly Moon’s,” Neitzel said. “My goal was never to build a big company that profits and doesn’t take care of its people. The whole reason I started Molly Moon’s was actually to see if I could build a for-profit company that did everything that I think a company should do to take care of people. And I’m doing it, it’s possible.”
Having worked in nonprofits before launching Molly Moon’s in 2008, Neitzel worked with the Mainstreet Alliance in 2014 to advocate for the seven-year increase in minimum wage for Seattle, and again in 2016 to lobby for Initiative 1433 which increased the minimum wage of workers state-wide. Though it might be an extra burden to employers now, Neitzel affirms that putting more money in the hands of wage-earners is critical, especially as the city makes its way out of the pandemic.
“What we know about how mainstreet economies work is that when people have more money in their pockets, the first place they spend it is in restaurants and on food . . . I think our citizenry having more money in their pockets coming out of the pandemic is going to be very, very good for restaurant businesses and for small retail in general,” Neitzel said.
For struggling businesses, help is on the way in the form of a second wave of PPP loans, and the GSBA has trained staff ready to help with the process. “What GSBA does is we work with the lenders and the SBA to help people apply,” Rosén explained. “You can call some of our trainers and staff. They will help people navigate how to fill out the forms, and what forms they’re asking for . . . [the PPP loan] can make a difference for people if they want to keep their employees paid.”
Check out the GSBA’s COVID-19 Resources page for more info.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤
