Definitions
Seattle Mun. Code § 14.20.010
in effect14.20.010 - Definitions
For purposes of this Chapter 14.20:
"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 14.20.035. "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 14.20;
"City" means The City of Seattle;
"Compensation" means payment owed to an employee by reason of employment including, but not limited to, salaries, wages, tips, overtime, commissions, piece rate, bonuses, rest breaks, promised or legislatively required paid leave, and reimbursement for employer expenses. For reimbursement for employer expenses, an employer shall indemnify the employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of the employee's duties, or of the employee's obedience to the directions of the employer, even though unlawful, unless the employee, at the time of obeying the directions, believed them to be unlawful;
"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 any individual employed by an employer, 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;
"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 City Council and designated as the Hearing Examiner, or that person's designee (e.g. Deputy Hearing Examiner, Hearing Examiner Pro Tem);
"Pay day" means a specific day or date established by the employer on which wages are paid for hours worked during a pay period, as defined in WAC 296-126-023 effective as of September 18, 2014;
"Payment interval" means the amount of time between established pay days. A payment interval may be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly, as defined in WAC 296-126-023 effective as of September 18, 2014;
"Pay period" means a defined time frame for which an employee will receive a paycheck. A pay period may be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly, as defined in WAC 296-126-023 effective as of September 18, 2014;
"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 14.20;
"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;
"Tip" 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;
(Ord. 125203, § 8, 2016; Ord. 124960, § 69, 2015; Ord. 124645, § 1, 2014.)
Source: City of Seattle, Seattle Municipal Code and City Charter (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/wa/seattle/codes/municipal_code?nodeId=TIT14HURI_CH14.20WATICORE_14.20.010DEFetched: 11/1/2026