The Seattle City Council’s Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee began discussing possible changes to the City’s “Pay Up” policy, a minimum wage ordinance for gig workers that went into effect in January. Committee Chair and Council President Sara Nelson said that she sees three options. The council could preserve the policy as is—an option she rejects. They could repeal the minimum wage—an option for which she has requested draft legislation. Or they could implement the “fix” they discussed Thursday, which Nelson also requested central staff to draft legislation for.
Workers who support their own minimum wage told The Stranger they would discuss changes, but so far it looks like Nelson’s definition of “fix” means making changes for one side of the debate: the bosses.
While gig workers who support the minimum wage filled City Hall, the committee heard a presentation about the consequences of the wage from only central staff and Michael Wolfe, the executive director of lobby group Drive Forward.
Drive Forward claims to represent workers, but it also receives funding from Uber, one of the key companies opposing protections for gig workers. The council patted itself on the back for including “both sides” in the conversation, but they completely snubbed Working Washington, a group that proposes progressive labor policy, and the workers who created and continue to support the policy.
“The proposal in front of the council right now was shaped entirely by corporations and will do nothing to stop corporations from being able to ratchet up fees that gouge customers and small businesses,” said Working Washington Spokesperson Hannah Sabio-Howell.
The Law
During the meeting, central staff laid out the context. After years of development, the city council passed a policy in 2022 that used a formula to give gig workers a minimum wage of about $15 an hour. Immediately after the policy took effect in January, gig companies retaliated by tacking on extra fees. In statements to their customers and to the press, the companies explicitly blamed the worker-won labor protection for the increased cost.
During that time, KING 5 went on an anti-labor campaign, platforming the complaints about minimum wage from gig companies, restaurant owners, and workers. As The Stranger reported, supporters argued that opponents of the wage misplaced their anger. Rather than train their fire on the City for establishing basic labor protections, they should aim at the companies for establishing new fees that hurt business. The company’s fees amounted to self-sabotage, an attempt to create political pressure and get their way with the new, more conservative council.
Despite the negative press, the central staff person said they’ve received mixed reports. Depending on which worker you ask, wages have decreased, increased, or stayed the same.
Nelson seemed to take issue with central staff’s measured language around the effect of the policy that’s only been in effect for three months.
“We are responding to an overwhelming number of reports that there are things to be redressed,” Nelson said.
Uber Cosplaying as Workers
After central staff gave context, Drive Forward laid out its issues. Essentially, they believe the new ordinance is slowing down business, which hurts incomes for drivers, restaurant owners, and of course, the big corporations.
In an unofficial proposal that Nelson admitted central staff had been working on for weeks, Drive Forward suggested about a dozen changes to the legislation. Nelson called the proposal a “fix,” but the lobby group suggested changing so much that Working Washington, who organized workers to lobby for Pay Up, said it would amount to a repeal.
Here’s what the “stakeholders,” AKA big business, want: pic.twitter.com/xBW7hlt3KN
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) March 28, 2024
The unofficial proposed changes include paying workers for less time, blocking the Office of Labor’s access to information about the companies for enforcement, and allowing companies to more freely boot workers from apps, which would pave the way to undo Working Washington’s deactivation protection law, too.
Next Steps
The committee seemed receptive to the proposals. Despite clearly dismissing the perspective of Pay Up supporters, they congratulated themselves on including “both sides.” Council Member Bob Kettle asserted that the last council had not listened to the opposition despite one of the bill’s original sponsors clearly bending to the whim of big business in an amendment to leave out many workers.
Nelson did not respond to my request for comment about excluding Working Washington and supportive workers from presenting, but in the meeting she clarified that by hearing from “both sides” she meant the gig companies and the workers as represented by the gig-company sponsored lobby group, Drive Forward.
No committee members pushed back on the assertion that the minimum wage hurt workers. Council Member Joy Hollingsworth came close when she said her main goal was to eliminate the fee, though she did not acknowledge that the gig companies added the fee of their own volition.
The council’s resident labor-backed member, Tammy Morales, who is not in the committee, spoke out against the “fix” in a press release following the meeting.
“We should not repeal labor protections every time billion-dollar corporations hike fees on customers without justifying those fee increases. That would allow corporations to extort our political process,” Morales said.
Morales called on the companies to release information “justifying” the new fees.
It’s Not Over
The council will have more time to discuss. Central staff will write draft legislation, then Nelson will introduce it, then the committee will discuss more formally, then they’ll make amendments, and then finally vote.
But Wolfe asked that the council work fast before customers change their delivery habits and leave the apps for good.
While workers will certainly organize to fight the gutting changes or an all-out repeal, the labor movement acknowledges this will not be a one-off battle.
In public comment, a spokesperson for the MLK Labor Council said unions are worried that this rollback will be the first in a “series of attacks on our labor protections” levied by the new, business-backed council. The spokesperson said the labor movement is prepared to fight to keep Seattle a great place to live and work.
I got a call from a phone bank asking me to call the Mayors Office and repeal the gig worker law. I wish I remembered the group that funded it, but the “astroturf” lobbying is real.
One thing that cheeses me about this industry but also this labor fight is the appeal to our baser instincts have low prices for takeout food delivery. This shouldn’t even be an industry to exploit gig workers in the first place. We should be living wholesome middle class lives preparing our own food and saving our pennies, not spending hundreds of dollars every month underpaying people to drive around our junky food with throwaway packaging. The excess is astounding.
I don’t get why we let non-local corporations set up their clever cloud servers and proceed to not only enslave the gig workers but also the small business owners? This seems like a prime startup opportunity where someone creates an open source cloud suite to sell to local businesses as turn key local delivery solution. The businesses that sign up could share the cost for delivery service. The businesses that reap the most deliveries would pay the higher percentage of the cost. This would cut out the corporate executive parasites sucking out all of the profits.
Hey Hannah. Have you talked to the restaurants about the impact this has had on them? You might wanna go down that lane regardless of how negative or positive they answer. Spice Waala’s owner Uttam Mukherjee told KOMO that he’s seen a 30% drop in orders.
Also why the hatred towards Sara. She actually raised this concern back in 2022. Sara Nelson raised concerns that drivers, restaurants and consumers would feel unforeseen negative impacts of the PayUp act and asked for a study to be done. Councilmember Herbold declined that request when it was up for vote in 2022. See https://seattlechannel.org/mayor-and-council/city-council/2022-2023-public-safety-and-human-services/?videoid=x136647 fast forward to 3hr 6 min (3:06:00)
So Sara Nelson called out what the restaurants, most of the drivers, and consumers are experiencing after the Pay Up act went into effect.
@1 – This has always been a convenient thing when life becomes hectic and busy. I love cooking and making meals but sometimes I get home too late from work and gym and I need to join a late night call with my offshore team.
A gig job is a side-hustle job. Originally it was meant to be that. However, over time that changed where people started working them as full time jobs.
Local pols – talk one talk and walk another walk, the money walk. What ever will be.
Michael Wolfe is poison. I remember him from the 37th district democrats where he habitually bullied the old timers and the chairperson. He even tried to get appointed to an open legislative seat.
He was early out of the gates with his Uber astroturf group which was exposed as being funded by Uber management, who pay his 100k per year salary.
Folks who claim that gig jobs aren’t real jobs/don’t deserve protections are parroting the claims made against the federal minimum wage…the jobs are part-time, they aren’t for adults, not intended to support a family, etc.
Perhaps what we are seeing is the reality that delivering peoples’ restaurant food is generally not something that can be done profitably if the deliverers are paid a reasonable wage. The extra fees a lot of places were adding for delivery were already ridiculous before the minimum wage ordinance. Face it, people, the middle class can’t afford servants and there is nothing wrong with picking up your own damn dinner.
@2 Yep, so go to it! Oh wait…you don’t want to coordinate all the players, drop the cash up front to do a pilot, or hire the drivers? Someone else should do that? But not charge a lot to?
Thus why there is no such thing.
@8 Spot on. Same as if we were to get rid of all the subsidies, implicit and explicit the entire global system of cheap Chinese crap would collapse. The reality is that the bulk of our lovely lifestyles are based on massive subsidies to get there. Stuff we of the left of center side don’t like, such as sprawl and giant cars, and stuff we do like this gig crap. Cheap underpaid people and subsidies. Take ’em away and costs make much of it non-economic. But the Hannah’s and Maga Hats don;t want to hear that. They want magic ponies.
Agree with @1 & 8. If you use these services, you are exploiting workers. This business model doesn’t work if drivers are paid a living wage.
@8/@10 it depends on your definition of a reasonable wage. As has been noted there was never an expectation of this work being able to support living in Seattle. Delivery work always has been a side gig or work for kids needing some extra cash. We really need to get away from the notion every job has to pay a living wage. It’s unrealistic and will never happen.
Please interview actual gig workers like myself if you are interested in how this bill is failing. my income has dropped by more than half. Im happy to show receipts. working washington has offered no ideas except “to just wait” . i know people who can’t pay rent on the first. they can’t wait. Only true privileged people can afford to wait for some magic solution no one knows about. Sara nelson cares about us workers. She has told us so, because she is listening to us. unlike the Stranger. Please do journalism. i can put you in contact with the immigrants who need the most help with this. It’s insane how this issue has been covered by most press. working washington is NOT working for us on the ground workers.
A law mandates more pay for the workers, apps charge more to consumers to pay for this. Consumers balk at increased food prices and order less food by app. Workers get less money overall. What is so hard to understand about this? The app companies are not going to take the increased costs out of their profit, to earn profit is why they exist. No profit, no app companies, no jobs for workers.