§ 14.19.010. Definitions

For purposes of this Chapter 14.19:

"Actuarial value" means the percentage of total average costs for covered benefits that a health benefits package will cover;

"Adverse action" means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration-related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to a nonemployee, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by Section 14.19.055. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and condition of employment;

"Agency" means the Office of Labor Standards and any division therein;

"Aggrieved party" means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this Chapter 14.19;

"Bonuses" means non-discretionary payments in addition to hourly, salary, commission, or piece-rate payments paid under an agreement between the employer and employee;

"Business" and "engaging in business" have the same meanings as in Chapter 5.30;

"City" means The City of Seattle;

"Commissions" means a sum of money paid to an employee upon completion of a task, usually selling a certain amount of goods or services;

"Director" means the Director of the Office of Labor Standards or the Director's designee;

"Employ" means to suffer or permit to work;

"Employee" means "employee," as defined under Section 12A.28.200, including but not limited to full-time employees, part-time employees, and temporary workers. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer.

"Employer" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or any entity, person or group of persons, or a successor thereof, that employs another person and includes any such entity or person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee. More than one entity may be the "employer" if employment by one employer is not completely disassociated from employment by the other employer;

"Franchise" means a written agreement by which:

1.

A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate;

2.

The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and

3.

The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee;

"Franchisee" means a person to whom a franchise is offered or granted;

"Franchisor" means a person who grants a franchise to another person;

"Front pay" means the compensation the employee would earn or would have earned if reinstated to the employee's former position;

"Hearing Examiner" means the official appointed by the Council and designated as the Hearing Examiner, or that person's designee (Deputy Hearing Examiner, Hearing Examiner Pro Tem, etc.);

"Hourly minimum compensation" means the minimum compensation due to an employee for each hour worked during a pay period;

"Hourly minimum wage" means the minimum wage due to an employee for each hour worked during a pay period;

"Medical benefits plan" means a silver or higher level essential health benefits package, as defined in 42 U.S.C. section 18022, or an equivalent plan that is designed to provide benefits that are actuarially equivalent to 70 percent of the full actuarial value of the benefits provided under the plan, whichever is greater;

"Minimum compensation" means the minimum wage in addition to tips actually received by the employee and reported to the Internal Revenue Service, and money paid by the employer towards an individual employee's medical benefits plan;

"Minimum wage" means all wages, commissions, piece-rate, and bonuses actually received by the employee and reported to the Internal Revenue Service;

"Piece-rate" means a price paid per unit of work;

"Rate of inflation" means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12 month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero;

"Respondent" means an employer or any person who is alleged or found to have committed a violation of this Chapter 14.19;

"Schedule 1 employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate;

"Schedule 2 employer" means all employers that employ 500 or fewer employees regardless of where those employees are employed. Schedule 2 employers do not include franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate;

"Successor" means any person to whom an employer quitting, selling out, exchanging, or disposing of a business sells or otherwise conveys in bulk and not in the ordinary course of the employer's business, a major part of the property, whether real or personal, tangible or intangible, of the employer's business. For purposes of this definition, "person" means an individual, receiver, administrator, executor, assignee, trustee in bankruptcy, trust, estate, firm, corporation, business trust, partnership, limited liability partnership, company, joint stock company, limited liability company, association, joint venture, or any other legal or commercial entity;

"Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip;

"Wage" means compensation due to an employee by reason of employment, payable in legal tender of the United States or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value, subject to such deductions, charges, or allowances as may be permitted by rules of the Director. Commissions, piece-rate, and bonuses are included in wages. Tips and employer payments toward a medical benefits plan do not constitute wages for purposes of this Chapter 14.19.

(Ord. 125203 , § 7, 2016; Ord. 124960 , § 46, 2015; Ord. 124644 , § 3, 2014; Ord. 124490, § 2, 2014.)