Seattle takes another step toward $15 minimum wage
Dec 31, 2015, 12:09 PM | Updated: Jan 1, 2016, 2:30 pm
After Seattle's minimum wage law took effect in April 2015, Ivar's Seafood Restaurants announced that it was hiking up prices about 21 percent, eliminating tips as a routine procedure, and immediately paying all its hourly workers a $15 per hour. (AP)
(AP)
It’s a new year, and as 2016 begins it brings Seattle a new, higher minimum wage.
As of Jan. 1, the city takes another step on the path to a $15 minimum wage. The first stride was taken on April 1, 2015, when wages rose to $11 per hour. Now that wage rises to as much as $13.
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But the wage hikes aren’t the same for all employers across the city.
If a Seattle business has more than 500 employees, the minimum wage goes up to:
• $13 per hour if the employer does not pay toward employee benefits.
• $12.50 per hour if the business does contribute to benefits.
But if a Seattle company has 500 or fewer employees, another pay scale is used. For those employers:
• $12 per hour if the employer does not pay $1.50 an hour toward benefits, or the employee does not make $1.50 each hour in tips.
• $10.50 per hour if the employer pays $1.50 per hour toward benefits, or the employee makes $1.50 each hour in tips.
Many of Seattle’s minimum wage workers will see the full $15 per hour rate in 2017, depending on whether the business contributes toward benefits. Though, some smaller companies will still have until 2021 to work up to the new wage, again, depending on the benefit contributions.
When the minimum wage rose in 2015, it was set at $10 for many businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and $11 for companies with more than 500 employees.
