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Should Seattle businesses pay a fee for labor inspectors?

The city of Seattle needs to double its staff in the Office of Labor Standards, in order to handle enforcement of the city’s various labor laws. While some councilmembers proposed charging businesses a fee to conduct this work, the idea has been postponed to give stakeholders time to give input.

The budgeted amount next year for the Office of Labor Standards, or OLS, is about $6 million. This pays for more than 20 employees and the cost of education and outreach.

Councilmember Lisa Herbold proposed a tiered business fee to pay for the department’s work, but the council decided instead to spend a year gathering both business and labor leaders together to form a mutually agreeable solution.

Herbold’s tiered system would have charged a $26 flat fee per year, on any employer with fewer than 10 workers. Those with more employees would pay more, with the largest companies of more than 2,500 employees paying $68,415 per year.

Mike Klotz owns Delicatus, a deli in Pioneer Square. He said he found out about the possible business fees a week ago. He has 18 employees and would have had to pay $146 per year.

“That’s not a huge dollar amount. It does, however, establish a precedent that seems to be a regular precedent,” Klotz said.

He said he and other business owners support a living wage, predictive scheduling, and paid sick leave. But not having a plan to fund enforcement frustrates him.

“The fact that all of these things happened, knowing that this office was needed, and no one figured out funding until now, and all of these laws have now been in place for years – and now we’re getting around to funding it?” he said.

Since he doesn’t want to pass along a higher cost to customers, Klotz said a fee like the proposed one would come out of his own paycheck.

Feedback from businesses caused councilmembers like Rob Johnson to suggest taking more time to come up with an answer.

While the current plan is to move general funds from other departments to pay for OLS in the coming year, elected leaders agree that this is not sustainable.

“I think it’s really important that we find dedicated revenue, given the likely cuts in federal funding to things like human services and housing. We need to free up our general fund as much as we can to provide an important social safety net,” Johnson said.

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