Eliminate minimum wage surcharges
Businesses of Washington State
Paying employees is a cost of doing business — the minimum wage is not an extra.
We've heard a lot of complaints (and received a lot of reports) about businesses which have recently added small 1% - 5% “living wage” surcharges to their bills in what seems to be an attempt to send a political message about their opposition to raising the wage.
These surcharges are misleading, unpopular, and seem intended to send a political message.
We can stop this trend & eliminate minimum wage surcharges. Already, several prominent companies which instituted these kinds of charges have reversed themselves after hearing from customers. We hope to see more of the same.
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To:
Businesses of Washington State
From:
[Your Name]
Paying the minimum wage is a basic cost of doing business, not an extra add-on to be counted separately. If there’s no line item for the electrical bill, no special fee because a few employees had to work overtime last pay period, and no napkin-laundering charge listed, then there’s no good reason to tack on an extra 2% and attribute it to the minimum wage.
Surcharges attributed to minimum wage are misleading, unpopular, and seem intended to send a political message. They should be eliminated.