Defunded Labor Watchdog Just Won $4 Million For Seattle Workers, Now Activist Mayor Must Protect The Department In Her Budget

Uber Eats will pay more than $4.3 million to over 14,000 gig workers for allegedly violating Seattle’s App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance thanks to the enforcement of Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS). The settlement highlights the vital role OLS plays in protecting vulnerable workers, but it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions OLS has recouped for Seattle workers in its decade of existence. And as City Hall stares down a difficult budgeting process, the level to which activist-turned-Mayor Katie Wilson funds OLS will demonstrate — better than any viral goof or gaffe — the strength of her commitment to Seattle’s working class. 

Last week, Wilson and OLS announced that Uber Eats agreed to pay workers a total of $4,386,682.28 million in back pay, interest, liquidated damages and civil penalties over alleged violations to Seattle’s ordinance granting gig delivery drivers a minimum wage, which went into effect January, 2024. Uber Eats will also pay the City $5,982.90 in fines. 

“Seattle works hard to protect workers' rights, and this multi-million-dollar settlement shows the impact," Wilson said in a press release.  "By enforcing workplace rights, including in the rapidly growing industry of app-based work, we hold large companies accountable. This is a win for the workers who are a critical part of our local economy and for Seattle as an equitable city for everyone who works, lives, and visits here.”

It’s easy for any Mayor to clap along when OLS delivers massive wins, but the real test is whether or not Wilson will fund OLS to its full worker-protecting potential. 

Since its inception in 2015, OLS has won almost $70 million for more than 120,000 workers wronged by their law-breaking bosses. When OLS scored a historic $15 million settlement with Uber Eats last summer, then-Mayor Bruce Harrell gladly took a victory lap, calling it a “strong reminder that in Seattle, we hold large companies accountable when they sidestep their responsibilities and shortchange workers.” 

However, his attempts to take credit for the claim felt little more than a flailing effort to bolster his progressive image after losing his primary to a lefty challenger. Afterall, Harrell had just proposed major cuts to the department the year before. 

As every executive and lawmaker loves to remind the public, budgets are a moral document or a statement of the government’s priorities. Over the years, the City of Seattle has not shown much love to OLS. According to the City’s budget portal, OLS had $12.3 million to play with in 2022, then just $8.4 million in 2023. With the department’s 2026 budget sitting at about $10 million, OLS’s already relatively small budget shrunk by about a third during the last Mayor’s tenure when accounting for inflation.

And not every department is asked to do more with less! In the same time period, the Seattle Police Department’s budget (which eats up about a quarter of every Seattle tax dollar) swelled from $355.49 million to $488.59 million, according to the budget portal. That $133 million growth alone could fund OLS at its current strength ten times over. 

Given the $175 million budget deficit projected for next year, Wilson will undoubtedly make cuts in her first crack at the City budget. Wilson’s office sent an email to all city departments earlier this year, asking for plans to scale down their operations by 5%-10% in anticipation of a complicated budgeting process, according to the Seattle Times. At the same time, she also told supporters at a town hall this spring that her office is still exploring options for progressive taxation to bring in new revenue to avoid the most devastating cuts. 

As expected, Wilson’s office isn’t preempting their big budget rollout just yet. 

“We’re proud of the work OLS did to obtain nearly $4.4 million for more than 14,000 workers,” a spokesperson from the Mayor’s office told The Burner in an email. “Mayor Wilson has a long record of standing with working people, and supporting workers remains a core value of her administration. We’re deep in the budget process right now and will have more to announce in the coming weeks.”

Wilson voters certainly expect her to be a stronger advocate for working people than Harrell. A few clumsy statements in the press backpedalling her calls to boycott Starbucks tainted that image for some. But many of her actual actions as Mayor so far show her alliance with working people — her ban on junk fees, her kickstart to the State’s universal school meal program, and several instances of bringing her history of transit advocacy to the Mayor’s office. Working people will be watching to see how she honors that commitment in the budget process.