The following information is provided to help answer questions regarding the City of Seatac "Living Wage" law. The new law was meant to set minimum standards for hospitality and transportation industry employees only; the law does not apply to all minimum wage employees in the City of Seatac. The law went into effect on January 1, 2014 as a result of the initiative adopted by the voters of the City.
The law DOES NOT apply to all employers:
- A company is exempt if its employees are covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Such an agreement dictates the hourly wage, NOT the new Seatac law.
- A company is exempt if its employees work at the Port of Seattle.
- A company is exempt if it does not meet the minimum number of employees; a hotel is exempt if it has less than 30 employees, and a park & fly business is exempt if it has less than 25 employees.
- A company is exempt if it does not meet minimum size requirements; a hotel is exempt with fewer than 99 rooms and a park & fly business is exempt with fewer than 99 stalls.
- A company is exempt if it is a free standing restaurant or a restaurant operated at the Port of Seattle; restaurants located in hotels must comply with the law.
- A company is exempt if its employees are working in ANY industry other than a hotel or park & fly within the City of Seatac.
In the Seatac Hotel Industry, there are only 7 hotels, out of approximately 34 hotels, that must comply. All other Seatac hotels are exempt for one of the above reasons.
The approximate number of Employees that the "Living Wage" law requires employers to pay $16.09 per hour is 930. The total number of employees in the City of Seatac is 39,530.
The MPark companies raised the wages of all our hourly employees to $15.00 per hour on Jan 1, 2014. That action resulted in a 63% increase in the cost of labor and increased our payroll costs by approximately $1,400,000 annually. MPark's current hourly wage is $16.09.
MPark determined the most reasonable way to recover some of the wage increase was to introduce a "Living Wage Surcharge" for the following reasons:
- Only 2 of 16 parking companies are required to pay a $16.09 minimum wage. In fact, only 2 parking companies in the entire United States are required to pay a $16.09 minimum wage. All other parking companies in the City of Seatac and the Port of Seattle are exempt for one of the reasons stated. And the park & fly operations located in Burien and Tukwila, directly adjacent to the City of Seatac, are exempt.
- In order to be able to absorb this additional cost, which MPark's competitors are not required to incur, MPark added a surcharge to its customer's bills that is currently $1.19 per day. MPark clearly communicates this charge on each customer receipt, on pricing boards in every MPark location and on the MPark website. No matter what transpires with this law, we have made a commitment to our current employees to continue to pay them $16.09.
MPark and our loyal employees sincerely appreciate and value our customer's understanding of this unique situation. We pledge to continue to offer the highest level of customer service and satisfaction in the park & fly industry.
Thank you.
