In October, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said he would work on ways to ensure the new higher minimum wage that would take effect Jan. 1, 2025 would not impact small businesses.
“Our office convened discussions to help address the concerns of all stakeholders. As the tip credit expires, we are committed to aggressively addressing many of the pressures facing small restaurants moving forward – from public safety to inflation, insurance, and a wide array of other cost pressures, including best practices in addressing the absence of a tip credit.
“I will be continuing our conversations with small businesses to identify tangible and actionable ways we can help make Seattle more affordable. We want successful, prosperous, and vibrant small businesses and entrepreneurs in our city, and we are committed to addressing these challenges, keeping existing small businesses here in Seattle, and ensuring this is a place where anyone has the opportunity to start a small business and succeed.”
But at the New Year, small businesses have started closing their doors to the public, or closing altogether, now that the minimum wage is $20.76.
Bebop Waffle Shop is one of those businesses. The owner told reporters that the new wage would cost the business more than $32,000 a year in added costs, and putting the owner in an impossible position. After 10 years, she closed her business.
The flower shop next door stopped taking walk-in customers, in order to balance out the additional costs, the owner told KIRO news. Now, it’s phone or online orders only.
“Seattle has one of the highest minimum wages in the country – this is a good thing for workers, a good thing for our overall economy, and something we should take pride in,” Harrell said in October. “As one of the leading members of the original team who developed Seattle’s groundbreaking minimum wage legislation, my mission is the same now as it was then – ensuring Seattle is both a great place for workers and a great place for small businesses.”
“It’s just not sustainable,” said Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the Washington Hospitality Association.
Also this week, one of the major Starbucks stores in the Pike Street Market area of downtown Seattle closed. In the past, the company has warned it was worried about safety of its workers in the increasingly dangerous downtown area.
