Ten years ago, Seattle made history when business, worker organizations, elected officials and community leaders came together and reached an agreement on the nation's first $15 minimum wage. The central compromise: a lengthy phase-in period that ensured every worker would eventually reach the same inflation-adjusted minimum wage, while allowing additional time for smaller businesses to see the benefits of increased demand before they had to pay the same rate as everyone else.

And it’s working. For the past 10 years, Seattle workers have gotten raises each year to keep up with rising costs, and Seattle's economy has been among the strongest in the nation. That’s not a coincidence. Seattle is growing because we raised wages. It’s simple: when more people get paid more money, that means more customers for more businesses. When workers can afford to spend money at local community businesses, that's better for everyone.

But now some restaurant industry lobbyists are trying to go back on the deal. Now they’re pushing City Council to create a permanent sub-minimum wage for tipped workers.

Send a message to tell City Council they need to get their hands off our minimum wage — a deal is a deal.

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Washington state eliminated the state’s subminimum wage for tipped workers back in 1988. The state  raised the minimum wage for all employees without creating a special subminimum rate in 1998, and did it again in 2016. Local minimum wage laws in SeaTac, Tukwila, Renton, Bellingham, and King County do not include any subminimum wage for tipped workers. Oregon, California, and Alaska don’t have these kinds of subminimum wages either. In fact, if these restaurant industry lobbyists get their way, Seattle would be the only place on the entire West Coast with a permanent subminimum wage rate for tipped workers.

Seattle's landmark $15 minimum wage law is by far the most popular thing the city has done in decades. It was negotiated and endorsed by a broad range of business groups, worker organizations, and elected officials. It inspired cities and states across the country to raise their wages too. In fact, Seattle's minimum wage has remained so popular that only one candidate for office has campaigned against it in the 10 years since the law passed, and that candidate is named Goodspaceguy. Not one current member of City Council stated a word of opposition to the minimum wage law when they ran for office.

And yet The Seattle Times has reported that a well-funded restaurant industry lobby group is now trying to push Council to go back on the deal and undo the minimum wage agreement. They want to roll back workers rights so they can permanently pay a sub-minimum wage to workers who receive tips. That’s right: ten years after the deal was made, they want to rewrite it in their favor — because they think some workers are worth less, and they think we’re not paying attention.

At least some members of City Council seem to be taking this seriously. Business owners have had ten years to adjust to the long phase in of our minimum wage law, but now they are pushing to jam through a last-minute rollback of workers' rights less than six months before workers are due to get a long-awaited raise.

Tell them to get their hands off our minimum wage. Every worker deserves to be paid enough to support themselves, afford the basics, and contribute to the economy. Minimum wage should be just that: the minimum. And customer tips should be a bonus for workers that goes on top of minimum wage — not a bonus for employers that lets them pay less.

Tell City Council and the Mayor: Hands off our paychecks. Hands off our minimum wage.