Seattle on Tuesday passed a minimum wage ordinance, the first of its kind, backed by workers, for many of its 40,000 workers.
The nine-member city council voted unanimously to approve the so-called PayUp policy, which will affect companies that offer on-demand delivery such as DoorDash Inc. DASH,
Instacart, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN,
(Amazon Flex), Uber Technologies Inc. UBER,
(Uber Eats) and others. The move now goes to Mayor Bruce Harrell, who plans to sign it.
“Gigs workers deserve a fair shake-up and a fair wage,” the mayor said in an emailed statement. “We are committed to making Seattle an affordable city where workers can thrive.”
Seattle City Councilor Andrew Lewis, who sponsored the ordinance with Councilwoman Lisa Herbold, said during the council’s pre-vote discussion that “this is the first step in adjusting the economy.” due to the effects of concert work in the past. decade.
In addition to establishing a formula that aims to give concert workers the equivalent of Seattle’s minimum wage of $ 17.27 an hour, PayUp’s policy calls for workers to be able to reject offers without penalty and that Application-based platform companies provide detailed detail. breakdown of workers’ salary.
The Washington worker, who pushed for the ordinance and whose victories have included helping ensure a minimum wage for fast-food workers in Seattle, applauded another victory Tuesday.
“Lower wages are history!” tweeted the group.
A DoorDash spokeswoman on Tuesday called the newly approved policy “extreme” and said it would increase costs for consumers and could lead to less work for distributors. “The council has also refused to study the impact of this proposal, despite widespread concern from voters,” he said.
But Working Washington spokeswoman Sage Wilson said “raising the wages of lower workers is good for the economy. When more people have more money, it means more customers for more companies.”
Instacart, Amazon and Uber did not return feedback requests.
The Seattle measure, which will take effect in 18 months, does not include transportation drivers. In April, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law that offers new benefits to Uber and Lyft drivers, but does not classify them as employees. This state law was supported by Uber and Lyft Inc. LYFT,
but this municipal ordinance is opposed by concert companies.
Seattle City Council also voted in favor of developing policies for next summer to cover undocumented concert workers, such as those working for TaskRabbit and Rover, who were originally supposed to be covered by this ordinance.