Seattle’s new minimum wage ordinance takes effect on Wednesday. From the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog:

Most Capitol Hill food and drink owners will only be required to raise employee wages by less than a dollar if they aren’t already making $11 an hour plus tips. But over time, the phased in wage hike could bring about fundamental changes to the tipping system.

Lost Lake and Comet owner Dave Meinert, and a member of the mayor’s Income Inequality Advisory Committee formed to pound out a middle ground in the debate, told CHS that a move towards service charges and increased prices could come to restaurants far before the full implementation of a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2021.

“I think we’ll see bigger restaurants move away from tipping right away and I think that will start a trend that will take hold really quickly,” he said. “I think in two years tipping may become an outdated business model.”

Lo and behold, Ivar’s plans to do just that:

On Wednesday, Ivar’s will raise the wages of about 100 employees who currently make less than $15 at its sit-down restaurant Ivar’s Salmon House, at the north end of Lake Union.

Those servers, bussers, dishwashers and others will see an increase in their hourly pay to a flat $15. They will not, however, get any tips because the restaurant will now tell customers they do not need to tip. To make up for that, the restaurant will share its menu-price increases with the employees.

Read the article for the mechanics of how this will work.