Let’s remember when Tom Douglas raised his employee’s salary to at least $15/hour at 3 of his restaurants, on this day in 2016 (February 1)
In late 2014, early 2015, it was an inevitability in Seattle that the minimum wage would be going up to $15 an hour. The only question was how fast it would be implemented. Disgraced then-mayor Ed Murray put together a committee to work out a deal that both business and workers could live with.
In January of 2016, Tom Douglas, Seattle’s most prolific restaurateur, announced that he would phase all of the employees at three of his restaurants (Carlile Room, Palace Kitchen, and Dahlia Lounge) to the higher minimum wage sooner rather than later, with it going into effect on February 1, 2016. To make that possible, he announced that tipping would be eliminated at those restaurants, to be replaced by a 20% service charge.
He sent an e-mail to customers and mailing list recipients that said, in part:
Our research and internal data show that this is the average amount our customers tipped for the last 3 years… This charge will go to ‘the house’ and then 100% of the charge will be redistributed to our team through wages, commissions and benefits.”
The biggest question for our company in 2014/2015 was, how Tom Douglas Restaurants would respond to the new minimum wage. Because of our size, of which I am quite proud, our minimum wage schedule is accelerated versus many of our peers. We are committed to everyone on our team making $15 or more immediately instead of following the schedule as laid out in the Seattle ordinance regulations.
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