Seattle, WA
Seattle Restaurant Workers Could See a Big Spike in Pay Next Year
As restaurant owners wait for the Seattle City Council to deal with high delivery app fees, there’s another challenge facing their businesses, reports the Seattle Times: The minimum wage at restaurants could go up by as much as $3 next year. That would be a huge boost for many low-wage workers, and also potentially an existential threat for restaurants that rely on those workers.
As of 2024, the minimum wage in Seattle is $19.97 an hour, unless you employ fewer than 500 employees, in which case you are allowed to pay them $17.25, provided the difference is made up by tips or medical benefits. According to the Times, this exception was carved out during negotiations over the minimum wage law passed nearly a decade ago, as then-Mayor Ed Murray attempted to assemble as broad a coalition as possible for the groundbreaking wage hike.
When that law went into effect in 2015, everyone was referring to it as a “$15 minimum wage,” then seen as a high number. (Small businesses then had to pay workers an $11 minimum wage.) Since then, Seattle’s minimum wage has risen beyond that number because the law ties it to inflation; Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards will announce the 2025 minimum wage in the fall. But the provision that allows small businesses to pay certain employees less will expire next year unless lawmakers take action, which means that in addition to the usual inflation-adjusted bump, smaller businesses will have to pay their employees as much as large ones do, and they won’t be able to factor tips into the equation.
This impacts the restaurant industry in particular because very few Seattle restaurant groups have more than 500 employees. The exception is Ethan Stowell Restaurants (ESR), which, the Times notes, hit that mark last year and responded by putting all workers, including servers, on an hourly rate and adding a service charge to checks.
“You either have to change the model next year or prices are going to go astronomically high or places are going to have to close down,” CEO Ethan Stowell told the Times.
The ESR example provides a window into how the industry could change if this small business exception expires. “The reaction among staff was mixed” at ESR, the Times writes. “For some, it was a positive, because it meant they earned more on sick days or when taking leave. Others quit.” This reflects a divide among restaurant workers — some want their pay to be more stable, while some servers and bartenders make good money thanks to tips and might see their earnings drop if they had to become hourly workers. Meanwhile, some customers really, really hate the service fees that tend to come with the hourly wage restaurant model.
According to the Times, restaurant industry lobbyists have been asking the City Council to make the small business exception in the minimum wage law permanent. But this is a tough ask. The Council also has other issues to deal with, and some members have conflicts of interest — Council President Sara Nelson is a co-founder of Fremont Brewing and still owns a portion of the company.
If politicians tried to tweak the minimum wage law, they would also face opposition from labor groups. David Rolf, a former union president who helped negotiate the law in the first place, was blunt about this when he spoke to the Times: “Undermining Seattle’s minimum wage law is political suicide for anyone who tries.”
Seattle, WA
Pedestrian hit and killed by vehicle in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, crash under investigation
SEATTLE — A 27-year-old woman was hit and killed by a vehicle in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood on Monday evening.
According to the Seattle Fire Department, crews were dispatched at 8:05 p.m. to a report of a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian at East Pine Street and Bellevue Avenue. When firefighters arrived, they found the woman trapped under a vehicle and upgraded the call to a “rescue extrication,” according to the SFD.
Additional units responded, and crews freed her. Firefighters attempted life-saving measures, but she was pronounced dead at the scene, the SFD confirmed. The scene was then turned over to the Seattle Police Department.
Seattle police later confirmed on X that the incident involved a pedestrian struck by a vehicle and described it as a fatal collision. Seattle police said the driver cooperated, but nobody was taken into custody as of 10:29 p.m.
Drivers were advised to avoid the area as emergency crews worked at the scene.
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The investigation remains ongoing.
Seattle, WA
Seattle Mariners acquire LHP Josh Simpson from Marlins – Seattle Sports
The Seattle Mariners suddenly have a number of left-handed options for their bullpen, with the latest addition coming in a transaction Monday.
Amid hype, Mariners’ Kade Anderson aims to ‘live in the moment’
The M’s have acquired 28-year-old southpaw reliever Josh Simpson from the Miami Marlins for cash considerations, the team announced late Monday morning.
Simpson has been added to Seattle’s 40-man roster. Right-handed starting pitcher Logan Evans, who underwent surgery to repair a torn UCL last month and will miss the entire 2026 season, has been placed on the 60-day injured list to make room on the roster for Simpson.
With the addition of Simpson, the Mariners have four left-handed relievers on the 40-man roster in spring training, with the others being Gabe Speier, Jose Ferrer and Robinson Ortiz. All but Speier are offseason acquisitions. Last season, Speier was typically one of two lefties in Seattle’s bullpen, and the only one who was particularly effective.
The 6-foot-2 Simpson made his major league debut in 2025 with the Marlins, appearing in 31 games. He finished the season with a 7.34 ERA, 1.83 WHIP, .272 opponent batting average, and 36 strikeouts to 22 walks over 30 2/3 innings pitched. He was much better when pitching against left-handed batters, who hit .207 against him last year compared to a .328 average by right-handed hitters.
A 32nd-round MLB Draft pick by Miami in 2019 out of Columbia, Simpson also appeared in 29 games for Triple-A Jacksonville in 2025, where he had a 3.41 ERA, 1.019 WHIP and 29 strikeouts to 16 walks over 34 1/3 innings.
Simpson was designated for assignment last Thursday by the Marlins after their signing of another left-handed reliever, John King.
Per Statcast, Simpson’s four-seam fastball and sinker both sit around 94 mph, though he relied heavily upon breaking pitches in the big leagues last year. His most used pitch was a sweeper that averaged 82.4 mph at 25.8% in 2025, followed closely by a curveball that averaged 80.6 mph at 23.7%. He used his sinker 22.2% and the four-seamer 11.7%, and his changeup that averaged 89.2 mph was deployed 10.9% of the time.
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Seattle, WA
Oregon State basketball falls at Seattle
Oregon State’s three-game road winning streak ended with a significant missed opportunity.
Matija Samar scored 14 points and Jorge Diaz Graham had 12 in a 60-50 Beavers loss at Seattle Sunday night at Redhawk Center.
“What was really disappointing is we reverted back to things that have cost us in the past‚” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said on postgame radio. “No toughness on the boards. We got our butts kicked and we couldn’t finish. Guard play — we kept putting our hands in the air looking for fouls and we’re turning it over.”
OSU’s starters combined to score 13 points on 6 of 26 shooting from the field, including 0 for 10 from three. Josiah Lake II scored three points on 1 of 8 shooting and made 1 of 3 free throws.
“You can’t have so many guys no-show on either end,” Tinkle said. “I love the fact that we finally found a group that thought it was important and actually played hard and shared it. Shame on us for the rest that weren’t ready to play that way.”
The loss moves Oregon State (14-14, 7-8 WCC) into a tie for fifth in the conference with three games left in the regular season. Though OSU is just one game behind fourth-place Pacific, the Tigers have the tiebreaker.
The Beavers shot just 29.2% from the field in the first half and trailed 36-18 at halftime.
That was more than enough cushion for Seattle (16-11, 5-9), which got 16 points from John Christofilis and 15 points and nine rebounds from Will Heimbrodt.
Diaz Graham scored 10 points and had five of his six rebounds and Samar scored nine points in the second half to help Oregon State cut a 23-point deficit down to 51-42 with 7:00 to go, but it would not get any closer.
“(Samar) played spirited,” Tinkle said. “He showed some fight and some fire. It’s too bad that we didn’t get other guys to follow suit.”
It was the lone remaining Quadrant 2 game for OSU, which hosts last place Pepperdine on Saturday.
Jojo Murphy had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists and Houran Dan had 10 points for the Redhawks, who never trailed and evened the season series. Seattle moved into a tie for ninth place in the WCC.
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