Service Charge
Beginning January 1, 2025, Sea Creatures full-service restaurants have returned to the service charge model we used prior to the pandemic (2015-2020).
This 22% service charge is applied to all dine-in guest checks and is retained entirely by the house. Revenue from this service charge is used to:
- Pay a base wage approximately 20% higher than Seattle’s minimum wage ($25/hour compared to $20.76/hour).
- Provide additional hourly earnings based on sales: Front-of-house staff earn an additional $10–$25/hour, and back-of-house staff earn an additional $8–$15/hour. This is in addition to their $25/hour base pay.
- Offer comprehensive benefits, including health, dental, retirement, paid time off, commuter assistance, and wellness programs—even to part-time employees working as few as 25 hours per week on average.
This approach ensures that servers and cooks across Sea Creatures’ full-service restaurants earn hourly compensation that meets or exceeds what their counterparts earn at similar restaurants in Seattle, even before receiving optional additional gratuities. Moreover, they benefit from a robust package of perks not commonly available in the industry. Our commitment is to provide the most competitive compensation packages we possibly can for our team.
The 22% service charge reflects the historical average tipping percentage from our guests. This 22% service charge is in lieu of tips. Additional gratuities are not expected, however they are accepted. 100% of tips are distributed among hourly workers in the front-of-house and back-of-house.
Sales tax is collected on this service charge per Washington State law.
Questions? Please reach out to info@eatseacreatures.com.