Bar owner: Small businesses will feel effect of Seattle’s wage ordinance in a year or two

Small businesses have a year or two before they start to see major impacts of Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance, according to the owner of two Capitol Hill bars.

“Starting next year or the year after that we will start to feel the effects,” Andrew Friedman told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz.

Friedman, who operates Liberty Bar, opened another bar, Good Citizen, in the same neighborhood in February.

The Seattle business owner was called out by Seattle blogger David Goldstein about his statements regarding the minimum wage law and its impacts on local establishments. Because Friedman opened another bar, despite concerns expressed over the law, Goldstein said Friedman is “either the world’s worst businessman, or a pathological liar.”

The reason Good Citizen works, Friedman said, is because it serves the neighborhood. If there are effects from the wage law on businesses like Good Citizen, it won’t be until the required wage increase, he said.

“But you’ll notice some businesses are trying to jump ahead,” Friedman added.

There are restaurants in Seattle eliminating tips and adding surcharges. That in itself will make it difficult for smaller businesses to survive, Friedman told Rantz.

“I don’t see a service charge being something that most small businesses can do,” he said. “Those that don’t have the competitive advantage will not be able to survive with just a service charge.”

Friedman’s main concern is the small amount of patronage businesses will lose over the course of the next few years. Those with small profit margins will go quickly from the black to red.

The businesses that will survive are those that are tourist-related, the Capitol Hill business owner said.

“In the end, everything’s just going to get a lot more expensive,” Friedman said.