Tag Archives: minimum wage

Cherry Street Coffee owner says Capitol Hill cafe closed for good after tangle with Sawant over minimum wage tip credit

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A small Seattle coffee chain has closed its Capitol Hill location amid an ongoing labor dispute with its workers backed by former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

Cherry Street Coffee owner Ali Ghambari tells CHS he has reversed plans to reopen his E Pine cafe and is instead looking for a new tenant to take over the space and the lease.

CHS reported here as Ghambari said he planned to reopen the Capitol Hill coffee shop later this month after Sawant and Cherry Street workers held a one-day “strike” that temporarily shut down the four-location chain over demands for “a living wage, an end to workplace sexual harassment,” and, the group said, an end to Ghambari’s “petitioning to roll back Seattle’s historic minimum wage victory.” Continue reading →

Sawant calls for support for Cherry Street Coffee workers in ‘strike’ over working conditions, minimum wage tip credit — Owner says Capitol Hill cafe set to reopen

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(Image: Cherry Street Coffee)

Former District 3 representative on the Seattle City Council and leader of the Workers Strike Back labor activism group Kshama Sawant is backing workers at Seattle’s Cherry Street Coffee in what she says is a strike over working conditions and the local chain ownership’s lobbying for changes in the city’s minimum wage.

“Socialist, former City Councilmember, and founding member of Workers Strike Back, Kshama Sawant, will stand alongside Cherry Street Coffee House workers as they walk out on strike demanding a living wage, an end to workplace sexual harassment, and an end to their bosses’ petitioning to roll back Seattle’s historic minimum wage victory,” the group said about a planned Friday morning press conference outside the Olive Way Cherry Street location. Continue reading →

‘New approach’ — Hollingsworth backs off minimum wage tip credit proposal

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Saying she will seek a “new approach” on the legislation, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth announced Friday she is backing off her proposal to permanently extend a tip credit put in place ten years ago to protect the city’s small businesses during Seattle’s phase-in of a higher minimum wage tied to inflation.

CHS reported Tuesday on the legislation proposed by Hollingsworth that would have responded to the coming 2025 end of the small business tip credit with a new plan to create a permanent credit by lowering the amount at which inflation would increase wages for small businesses.

A statement from Hollingsworth did not specify why she was backing off her sponsored legislation but said her proposal was “never an end, but the beginning of a process.” Continue reading →

Hollingsworth legislation would make Seattle’s minimum wage tip credit for small businesses permanent — UPDATE

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Hollingsworth with Hana Yohannes of E Pike’s Shikorina Pastries (Image: Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth)

District 3 Seattle City Council representative Joy Hollingsworth is sponsoring a bill that would extend the tip credit put in place to protect the city’s small businesses during Seattle’s decade-long phase-in of a higher minimum wage tied to inflation.

The effort comes as a credit for tips and benefits for companies with fewer than 500 employees is set to expire. Industry advocates say wages could jump nearly $3 an hour for some small restaurants and bars.

“Due to higher than usual inflation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the gap between the large and small employer minimum wages grew farther apart in recent years, making the transition to a single minimum wage a more significant change than anticipated,” a council staff analysis of the bill reads. “As a result, some small employers, particularly those with tipped employees such as restaurants and other food service establishments, may need to increase wages by a substantial amount in 2025.” Continue reading →

$20 Now? Pushed by inflation surge, Seattle minimum wage will reach new milestone in 2024

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A decade after the first push for the $15 Now campaign, minimum wage in Seattle will reach the $20 mark.

The city’s Office of Labor Standards announced the coming milestone this week as it released the updates to the city’s minimum based on the rate of inflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Seattle Tacoma Bellevue area.

  • The 2024 minimum wage for large employers (501 or more employees) is $19.97/hour
  • The 2024 minimum wage for small employers(500 or fewer employees) who do not pay at least $2.72/hour toward the employee’s medical benefits and/or where the employee does not earn at least $2.72/ hour in tips is $19.97/hour.
  • The 2024 minimum wage for small employers who do pay at least $2.72/hour toward the employee’s medical benefits and/or where the employee does earn at least $2.72/hour in tips is $17.25/hour.

“Seattle has one of the nation’s highest minimum wages – a clear commitment to creating a city where working people can live and thrive,” Mayor Bruce Harrell said in the announcement about the near 7% jump. “We will continue to advance policies and programs that support working people and ensure Seattle remains a bastion for workers’ rights.” Continue reading →

Seattle ready to set minimum wage for Uber, Lyft drivers

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A Seattle City Council committee Thursday is preparing to move legislation forward championed by Mayor Jenny Durkan that would set a minimum wage for drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft.

The “TNC Driver Minimum Compensation Ordinance” would set “Minimum compensation standards and other labor protections for Transportation Network Company (TNC) drivers” starting January 1st.

The legislation could set a minimum wage as well as include “tip protection” ensuring gratuity is passed on to drivers. It is also being lined up to regulate use of personal protective equipment and disinfecting supplies in the vehicles, and require companies like Uber to be transparent in their pricing. Money will also be earmarked for a study of the minimum wage and the companies’ presence in the city. Continue reading →

Time for tip credit? Capitol Hill’s independent restaurants and bars near $15 minimum wage milestone

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Terra Plata (Image: CHS)

Seattle’s long march to a $15 an hour minimum wage included its biggest jump yet to start 2020.

One Capitol Hill restaurant owner and Seattle business leader says the milestone means it is time for the city to rethink how it treats tips and wages.

Linda Di Lello Morton, co-owner of Terra Plata and president of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, says increasing costs are eating up her profits at the Melrose Market restaurant and is calling for a tip credit to help the city’s restaurant industry survive, KING reports.

“It’s going to be a challenge for sure, and the problem is more than just minimum wage,” Morton told the TV station about the 2020 minimum increase. “There’s a lot of other increases, there’s other legislation that’s passed that have increased our costs, rents are going up, triple nets are higher than they’ve ever been, property taxes are going up. That affects our bottom line.”

UPDATE 10:25 AM: Jacque Coe, communications for the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, tells CHS that the organization has no official position on a tip credit at this time. Morton did not respond to CHS’s inquiries.

Continue reading →

Capitol Hill leather bar settles over city minimum wage and sick time complaint

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Capitol Hill leather bar The Cuff has settled a sick time complaint with the Seattle Office of Labor Standards. The relatively small “financial remedy” will make sure dozens employees get their due, of course, but the payout can also serve as an educational moment for other employers who want to do right by the city’s Paid Sick and Safe Time and Minimum Wage ordinances.

OLS says it alleged that the Cuff was not paying the correct minimum wage in some instances and was rounding paid sick and safe time accrual down to the hour for 43 employees during the period. Continue reading →

A year from ‘the big, scary jump,’ Capitol Hill small businesses take step by step approach with Seattle’s rising minimum wage

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Minimum wage workers at Seattle’s small businesses continue to see their wages rise. At Elliott Bay, that can also mean people have more money to spend on books.

(Source: Seattle Office of Labor Standards)

Contrary to popular belief, Seattle does not have a $15 per hour minimum wage. At least not for every business. But the march toward $15 continues this year, and is being met with a collective yawn from many business owners around Capitol Hill, though some are looking nervously at 2020.

The slow, step by step march to $15/hour has helped.

Tracy Taylor, of Elliott Bay Book Co. said her store is managing to keep up with the increased cost of labor. She was grateful for the gradual pace of the increases so far. Moreover, she said that the increased wages have created a virtuous cycle by giving her customers more to spend.

“It appears the minimum wage is, in theory, increasing sales and consumer demand, at least from what we’ve seen. Hopefully other small businesses are finding the same,” Taylor said.

When the city implemented the minimum wage law in 2015, it started creeping toward $15 in increments, depending on the size of the company, and whether or not the company offers its employee’s benefits and/or they receive tips. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill small businesses ready for 2018 bump, preparing for coming minimum wage jumps

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An estimated 80,000 people who work in Seattle will be getting a raise January 1st as the city continues its long march to a $15 per hour minimum wage. That accounts for nearly 15% of the city’s workforce of 540,000. Even more could see other new benefits surrounding sick leave.

The wage increases are only part of the good news for workers. In 2016, Washington voters approved I-1433 expanding mandatory sick leave statewide. Some benefits in the initiative are more generous than those granted under city regulations, explained Karina Bull, of the city’s Office of Labor Standards.

Some of the new benefits include allowing people to take sick time to care for children of any age (the old rules only allowed for time to help minor children) and also to help siblings and grandchildren. The waiting period to qualify for paid sick time will be reduced from 180 to 90 days. Caps on the use of sick time will be forbidden. There will no longer be an exemption for employees engaged in a work-study program.

In some cases, the Seattle benefits are more generous, and will remain in place.

Bull said the City Council will likely soon consider an ordinance to implement the more generous state standards, where appropriate. Reviewing the city’s charts laying out the various changes (PDF) have become an end of the year Seattle small business tradition.

Meanwhile, in 2018, more workers will be getting more money. Continue reading →