City of Seattle Raising Minimum Wage Requirement Again

The city of Seattle is expected to increase its minimum wage to an eye-popping $22.14 per hour in 2027. The city began requiring the same minimum wage in 2025 for employers and small businesses, with annual adjustments for inflation. Fox News reported that several Seattle restaurant owners who have since closed their businesses cited the increased labor costs as a primary reason for leaving.

During the first half of 2025, shortly after the wage hike requirement went into effect, 450 Seattle restaurants — around 16 percent of the city’s total — closed, Fox News said. Restaurant and retail transactions fell by as much as 7 percent over the prior year in areas around Amazon and Microsoft campuses, according to Square data cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Breitbart News previously reported on the city’s minimum wage hike in 2025, which went from $19.97 to $20.76 in 2025 and led to one restaurant owner to say she “cried every day” as her dream of owning a cafe ended.

“This was my dream. To own my own cafe, to run it how I want to, and to really, like, be in service to people,” Corina Luckenbach told FOX13 in January 2025. At that time, the the new minimum wage requirements would have cost her an additional $32,000 each year.

Democrats across the country have renewed their interest in massive minimum wage increases, blowing past the $15/hour talking points of the last decade.

The state of California saw significant fast food job losses due to its $20 minimum wage in a 2025 study. Over 10,700 jobs were lost and prices jumped by more than 14 percent, Breitbart News reported at the time.

Democrats Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) and Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-CT) both backed a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $25 per hour in June of this year. Murphy said in supporting the plan, “We’ve got to be a party that talks about big, bold ways to put money back in people’s pocket. That means not a couple-dollar increase in the minimum wage. That means a minimum wage that’s a living wage, $25, whatever it takes.”