Dear Valued member,
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and the city council have turned their backs on small businesses by refusing to come to the table to discuss a reasonable compromise on total compensation.
Overnight, small businesses in Seattle will see more than a 20% increase in labor costs starting Jan. 1, 2025 when the total compensation policy sunsets. Seattle will have the highest minimum wage in the nation at $20.76 per hour.
The lack of action sends a clear message: the mayor and city council leaders do not care about small businesses.
I’m sharing this news with the broader association as it is important for all locally elected officials to hear. Their actions send clear statements to current and future small businesses – in this case, that message was: stay away from Seattle. If labor succeeds with their anti-small business agenda in Seattle, they will continue pushing similar agendas in other cites around the state.
Your local government affairs team worked diligently to reach a compromise, but we were silenced. Promises made to our team were broken. City leaders handed this conversation over to labor leaders who were clearly never interested in collaborating with us.
Charlie Anthe, president of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, and I held a press conference last week to discuss the issue with reporters. You can check out a brief clip of that press conference below, and watch the entire event in the members only section of our website.
As always, we will continue to fight for our industry and for the long-term health of our communities and local economies.
It’s an honor to serve you.
Anthony Anton
President & CEO
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