
Ownership at Dino’s expects many restaurants and bars of its size to transition to service charges (Image: Dino’s Tomato Pie)
Seattle political leaders will not push forward to extend the city’s tip credit. Now, small restaurant and bar owners are preparing new solutions to make ends meet including plans for significant service charges.
Mayor Bruce Harrell addressed the looming end of year expiration last week as the Office of Labor Standards set the new inflation-adjusted minimum wage for 2025 at $20.76 per hour, saying his administration will instead focus on “aggressively addressing many of the pressures facing small restaurants” as the credit expires.
The expiration is “the right thing for wage fairness,” Harrell said in a statement.
“I will be continuing our conversations with small businesses to identify tangible and actionable ways we can help make Seattle more affordable,” Harrell said, including “public safety to inflation, insurance, and a wide array of other cost pressures, including best practices in addressing the absence of a tip credit.”
The mayor’s position seems likely to stop any remaining motion after one of the most abrupt political u-turns of the year.
District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth, who was closely supported by Harrell during her campaign and whose office has worked closely at the mayor’s side on policy, reversed course in a matter of days on legislation she introduced this summer that would have extended the 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. Continue reading