The International Franchise Association (IFA) has filed suit against Seattle for lumping franchise owners into the major corporation category, meaning they have to implement the new $15-an-hour minimum wage in three years rather than in the seven years given small businesses to comply.
The clock starts ticking on April 1, 2015, when the law kicks in.
The association has even launched a website, Seattle Franchise Fairness, to explain its position, where the words "unfair," "unfairly" and "uneven playing field" tend to dominate.
According to the site's "The Issue" page:
The City Council's decision to pass the ordinance could unfairly and unjustifiably destroy the established franchise model in Seattle. Moreover, hundreds of franchise small business owners are being punished simply because they chose to operate as franchised brands. Decades of legal precedent have held that franchise businesses are independently owned businesses and are not operated by the brand’s corporate headquarters.