“The Seattle City Council is trying to cut low-wage workers’ pay.
The council is about to tell tens of thousands of workers in our city that, actually, they don’t deserve the right to minimum wage after all. They’re poised to take money out of the pockets of workers and put it into the profits of corporations that pay their CEOs millions of dollars.
Through a rushed, closed-door process that has taken place less than two months after the implementation of the #PayUp gig worker minimum wage law, Council President Nelson has allowed the app corporations to present ‘solutions’ to a problem they created by imposing massive new fees on customers. The corporations have recklessly gouged everyone in Seattle’s regional economy and made it harder for workers to realize our minimum wage win, and have used misinformation and massive lobbying resources to convince the council that the law is the problem.
The law was organized for and written over the course of several years with gig workers, corporations, small businesses, agencies, and policymakers at the table. It was voted on unanimously by the council and supported by the mayor. Workers then and now support the law and regularly report making living wages because of it. The law is the product of good governance, shaped thoughtfully and deliberately by a workforce that is largely made up of immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, working parents, and young people – with buy-in across sectors.
Rolling back minimum wage for gig workers who have always been exploited by this industry but were deemed essential over the past four years – after barely two months of the right to fair pay – would be irresponsible policymaking informed by nothing but unverified claims from the app corporations.
Seattle is better than this.”