Several policies impacting Seattle’s business climate have been in the news recently.

Minimum Wage: As of Jan. 1, the minimum wage in Seattle rose to $15 an hour for employees of businesses that have 501 or more workers and don’t offer health benefits. (Other businesses will get there by 2021.) In July, the UW team that is looking at the impacts of the Seattle minimum wage released a report that covered the initial increase to $11. It found that there are tradeoffs. More on the findings here.

Initiative 124: In November, Seattle voters approved Initiative 124. Among other things, it requires hotels to keep lists of guests accused of assault or harassment by hotel workers, limits the square footage that a housekeeper is allowed to clean in a day, requires certain hotels to provide additional compensation for medical coverage for their employees, and requires, when a hotel changes ownership, that the new owner retain the workers. 

In December, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, Washington Hospitality Association, and Seattle Hotel Association sued. The complaint is available here. Some of the arguments the associations make are that I-124 violates the single subject rule and guests’ privacy and due process rights and that part of the initiative is preempted by state health and safety standards. The complaint notes,

the blacklist provision creates a significant risk that people will be mistakenly or wrongfully accused without any opportunity to respond or clear their names and denied public accommodation as a result.

According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick will hear the case Dec. 18, 2017. 

Legacy Businesses and Rent Control: Erica C. Barnett writes about Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold’s proposed legacy business program, which “would identify such neighborhood institutions and provide them with financial or regulatory support to help them survive as Seattle continues to boom.” Meanwhile, there has been some question about whether the state ban on rent control applies to commercial property. A bill has been introduced in the Legislature this year (HB 1082) that would specifically preempt cities from enacting commercial rent control.

Paid Family Leave: In PubliCola, Councilmember Herbold writes, 

Workers will see new advances in 2017 with the implementation of the Secure Scheduling Law, another increase in the minimum wage, increased staffing for enforcement at the Office of Labor Standards, new labor rights for independent contract employees, as well as development of a new Family Leave Benefit proposal, and the long awaited Directed Investigations Program to focus investigations on industries known to be more likely to violate labor laws.  Directed Investigation Programs help workers least likely to file complaints, benefit employers who adhere to our labor laws, and reduce caseloads for investigators.

Regarding that family leave proposal she mentions: The City of Seattle has expanded leave benefits for its workers. The Seattle Chamber wrote in November about a meeting with Councilmember Lorena González:

The next step, she said, is "the beginning of a conversation" around how such a policy could benefit all workers in Seattle, and engaging with local businesses to hear how it could impact owners, employees, and their businesses.

In July, Councilmember González told Seattle City Council Insight:

Seattle must continue to lead on these progressive workplace policies because the State has failed to fund the statewide paid family leave law and because Congress has failed to pass a national law to provide all workers with this important benefit.

As I wrote the other day, multiple paid family leave bills have been introduced in the Legislature this year. SB 5149 includes a retroactive preemption clause, which would keep Seattle (and any other local government) from enacting paid family leave that is inconsistent with state law.