What's up, South End?
I hope y'all are staying bundled up in this cold weather.
Lots of interesting things are happening around town this week. In case you missed it, SDOT is lowering street parking prices in Columbia City. That's a win for the neighborhood.
And in the spirit of wins for the community, Gov. Bob Ferguson recently signed House Bill 2355 into law. Sponsored by Rep. Brianna Thomas, the legislation, which kicks in next summer, provides protections for domestic workers statewide.
"This policy is incredibly personal for me," said Rep. Thomas, whose legislative district includes West Seattle, White Center, Burien, and Georgetown. "My mom was a domestic worker. We would clean the rich folks' houses. And I went with my mom one day, and a very wealthy lady looked at me and said, 'Make sure it doesn't mess anything up.' Like I wasn't a person."
Thomas says that having that experience in her childhood impacted the way she viewed herself and reflected on the recently passed bill. She added, "I just wanted those people to be proud and to feel dignity and to have the respect they deserve."
The new bill requires employers to give domestic workers minimum wage and overtime pay and allows workers to file labor claims with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.
I recently spoke with Rep. Thomas about the bill and how many people it will help.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
MD: Can you explain the intention of the bill and why you thought it was important?
BT: Let's start by defining what a domestic worker is: Somebody who comes into your home and helps with the running of your life. So that could be a nanny who lives with you or an au pair that helps with the kids. That could be a gardener. It could be a cook, a maid, a home health care worker helping with someone from the aging generation. Maybe you have someone coming in a few times a week to run errands.
I describe it as any work that is born out of the history of slavery or indentured servitude.
Thus, people who do this work are people who have a history of slavery or indentured servitude. So, we're talking about people of color, immigrants, documented and not refugees. Primarily women, primarily non-English-speaking, and a lot of times, folks that are new to the country or have been involved in this work for quite some time.
MD: What was happening before this bill, and what is it intended to prevent?
BT: So, we all know the minimum wage, and we all assume that it is indeed the minimum because it's in the name — but this class of workers was actually very intentionally and systemically left out of those basic protections.
You think about a teenager getting their first job, maybe working fast food, maybe working retail. You know, this year in Seattle, they're gonna be making $21.30 an hour. Domestic workers aren't given those protections or that basic standard of wage. And again, going back to history, that was not an accident, that was a series of intentional decisions.
What this bill strives to do is bring those folks into modernity from an economic justice standpoint. We're trying to make sure that these workers have the same protections as anybody else.
MD: What was the previous situation with wages for these workers? With this bill, what did they win?
BT: These folks are traditionally more vulnerable workers, whether it's based on their language access or their documentation status. And when you've got somebody that's vulnerable, you've got somebody else that might be willing to take advantage of that. What this bill does is it says you have to treat domestic workers like any other worker in terms of what they're getting paid. So, some folks are getting paid. But they were getting paid under the table, well below the minimum wage. This policy makes it super-duper clear that wherever you're working and whatever work you're doing, you get the same coverage and the same dollars per hour as anybody else.
MD: How many domestic workers live in the South End? How many people will this bill help?
BT: I don't know per district, unfortunately, but I do know there are about 100,000 workers statewide, and I think that we can make some assumptions about concentrations of wealth going along with concentrations of services. So, I think it's a fair bet to say that we're looking at at least half of those workers, if not three-quarters, being west of the Cascades. And for the Emerald readers, you could absolutely have somebody that lives right off Rainier cleaning houses in Seward Park.
I mentioned this above, but I want to bring it back. First of all, as someone who has paid these higher rates to park while trying to slide to Geraldine's for a few of those delicious biscuits, I'm overjoyed to see the city correcting this egregiousness.
But also — shout-out to my colleagues for adding a new section to the Emerald's webpage. You can see our wonderful and informative video content right on our site. (But you should still be sure to give us likes on IG.)
In case you haven't heard: Rainier Beach won the state championship last weekend.
Columnist Glenn Nelson was there with his notebook and his camera. He wrote an article about the big win and another article making the case that the Vikings could potentially win again next year. He took so many great photos along the way, so be sure to check out Glenn's coverage of the Vikings championship season.
The World Cup is coming to Seattle — and causing a lot of mixed feelings. At first, it was excitement, but I understand that recent global events may have soured the idea for some of y'all.
Here in Seattle, massage workers in the Chinatown-International District are calling for safer conditions ahead of the influx of potential patrons heading to town for the World Cup.
This is an abbreviated version of The Roundup newsletter. To get the entire newsletter, including a weekly list of events to check out and my shout-out to South End Gems, subscribe here. See you next week!
Mike Davis is the newsletter editor and Voices editor at the South Seattle Emerald. Born and raised in Seattle's South End, Mike is a longtime journalist who's covered everything from arts and culture to sports to politics.
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