Vashon Island rang in the new year with a higher minimum wage.

As part of unincorporated King County, the island is subject to a minimum wage increase passed in May last year by a 7-2 vote of the King County Council.

The increase, aimed at giving workers in the unincorporated county competitive pay, sets the minimum wage in unincorporated King County at $20.29, with temporary exceptions based on business size and revenue. Vashon has no companies with 500 or more employees, according to Nichole Banducci, executive director of the Vashon Island Chamber of Commerce, so all businesses fall below the $20.29 wage requirement.

Small businesses, defined as those with 15 or fewer employees and annual gross revenues under $2 million, are required to pay a minimum wage of $17.29 per hour in 2025. Medium businesses, employing between 16 and 499 workers, as well as small businesses with gross revenues exceeding $2 million, must pay at least $18.29 per hour.

Businesses adapt

Vashon businesses such as Island Queen have seen higher wages for some of their employees due to the minimum wage increase.

Jennifer Harvey, owner of Island Queen, said she’s raised her menu prices to adapt to paying a higher wage. Although she adjusts prices yearly to keep up with inflation, this adds another layer of pressure, she said.

Island Queen worker Sutton Archambault has been the recipient of customer complaints this past month about those higher prices.

“I’ve had some customers, especially through the drive-through, ask me to explain why minimum wage went up and why they couldn’t have just paid the regular price still,” Archambault said.

Harvey employs primarily high school students. She strives to create a flexible work schedule for her employees, though this increases her total employee count, pushing her into the medium-sized business bracket and wage requirement.

“I am so intent on this being a place for high school kids to have a job,” Harvey said. “I want them to be focused on school, on their other activities. So therefore I have a bunch of people on my roster.”

Harvey has decreased the suggested tip amounts on the points of sale in an attempt to keep final costs of a meal somewhat steady. Archambault says that because she is now making less in tips, the increase in minimum wage has not actually resulted in an increase in her take-home pay.

Last spring, Harvey attended a Zoom meeting with the county council prior to the ordinance’s adoption, where she asked the council to allow flexibility in wage requirements for businesses, such as her own, that employ almost entirely part-time employees.

Harvey, along with some other business owners, also suggested a “tip allowance” — letting tips count toward the minimum wage threshold — as her employees were already making more than the minimum wage with tips.

King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, whose district includes Vashon and West Seattle, explained in an email why the council decided against authorizing a tip allowance, or tip penalty.

“One of the biggest reasons for not including it is that it … ended in Seattle after a 10-year period, and we want to try and bring the minimum wage in unincorporated King County into alignment with neighboring jurisdictions who also do not include a tip penalty for workers.”

Adam Chumas, owner of Pop Pop Bottle Shop, says that all of his nine employees were already making above the current minimum wage rates before the new year. Chumas says he created a labor model that required fewer, more experienced service workers in order to pay a higher wage.

Some, though not all workers at larger businesses have seen their paychecks rise from the minimum wage bump, too.

Vashon Thriftway is one of the largest employers of minimum wage workers on the island. According to owner Clay Gleb, the grocer employs over 120 people, around 10-15% of whom earn the minimum wage.

The Thriftway chain, which includes Vashon’s store and several others in Washington, employs well over 500 people. The Vashon location is independently owned, which, according to Gleb, classifies it as a medium-sized store and makes it exempt from the $20.29 wage.

Sawbones, another one of the island’s largest businesses, employs 166. According to human resource manager Kit Gruver, entry-level employees make $20 an hour, Gruver says, which is above the minimum wage required of a medium-sized company.

The Vashon Park District employs around 50 people in a given year, the vast majority being part-time and/or seasonal workers. Only a few of these part-time employees are at minimum wage, according to executive director Elaine Ott-Rocheford.

“Penalized” for living in unincorporated King County

It’s an age-old tug-of-war: Raising the minimum wage puts more money in workers’ pockets and protects them from an inflating cost of living, but businesses must find a way to absorb or mitigate those rising salary costs.

Councilmember Mosqueda says that housing prices — and a worker’s ability to afford them — play a big role in staffing businesses on Vashon. According to Mosqueda, raising the minimum wage to match nearby cities means that business owners can compete to employ Vashon locals.

“I’ve heard from small business owners on island who have had to close down during the busiest months because they can’t find workers who can make it onto the island, since [those workers] can’t find affordable places to live on island,” Mosqueda said via email.

Jamie Holter, communications manager for King County’s Department of Local Services, emphasized the ordinance’s intent to get working families closer to a living wage and address wage disparities across the county.

From the county’s perspective, Holter explained, the 2024 King County minimum wage, $16.28, was too low in comparison with wages set by surrounding cities, such as Burien, Tukwila and Seattle.

“In many ways, it felt like it was penalizing people for living in unincorporated King County,” Holter said.

In the long term, the county says, higher wages can also stabilize a businesses’ workforce and reduce turnover.

But the rapid implementation of the wage increase has frustrated some business owners and business advocates, who caution that businesses with already tight profit margins can be existentially threatened by the increase.

“This is not something we wanted or we were excited about,” said Anthony Anton, president of the Washington Hospitality Association. “It wasn’t the collaborative process of the first Seattle minimum wage increases they did, where we all were together, and spent several months trying to figure out the best way to go and give lots of time to make the adjustments, but now we’re focusing on how we deal with it.”

According to Anton, Washington state’s restaurant profit margins are 60% lower than the national average, indicating that businesses may need to raise prices or cut staffing to make ends meet.

Banducci believes there is more work to be done, by the chamber and the county, to fully understand the impact of the wage increase. She underscores the importance of gathering data to show how many workers are benefiting and how businesses are adjusting financially.

“That’s the biggest challenge, not knowing the numbers behind who lands in these different areas,” Banducci says.

County officials say they will continue assessing the wage increase’s effects, acknowledging the complexities of the policy.

“It’s hard to live in King County — it’s an expensive place to live, and that’s probably not going to change,” Holter said. “It’s hard to make these kinds of decisions and these ordinances. It’s a balancing act.”

Mari Kanagy is a contributing journalist to The Beachcomber.