Door-to-Door Outreach

The Office of Labor Standards (OLS) was created in an effort to increase equity and establish a fair and healthy economy for workers, businesses, and residents within the City of Seattle. The mission of OLS is to advance labor standards through thoughtful community and business engagement, strategic enforcement, and innovative policy development with a commitment to race and social justice. 

While the City of Seattle has become a national leader in establishing progressive and equitable labor standards for employees and employers, many small businesses struggle to comply with Seattle’s labor laws because of lack of access to this information. This is especially challenging for business communities with linguistic, cultural, social, economic, and geographic barriers. 

The growing number of Seattle Labor Standards has drastically expanded the number of workers covered by these protections. For successful implementation of these laws, workers must understand their rights and businesses must understand and comply with their legal responsibilities.

May Day Kick-off

To increase public awareness and understanding of existing Seattle Labor Laws, the OLS Outreach Team (Outreach) conducts direct Door-to-Door (D2D) outreach and education to small businesses to increase voluntary compliance. This work starts each year on May Day (Worker’s Day) with an annual D2D Campaign Kick-off event which was established in 2024.

May Day has its roots in the labor movement of the late 19th century. On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of workers across the country went on strike, demanding better working conditions and shorter working hours. A few days later a deadly explosion in Chicago’s Haymarket Square invigorated the labor movement and led to the establishment of May Day as a day of labor solidarity and protest.

While the day is not recognized as an official holiday in the United States, labor unions and worker organizations in Seattle and across major U.S. cities hold rallies and other events on May 1st to commemorate the labor movement and to call for a more just and equitable society for all.

The May Day event brings together members of OLS staff, community groups, community and business outreach partners, city departments, and more. Volunteers are sent out in small groups around the city to meet face-to-face with hundreds of small business owners and workers. Although May Day is our largest coordinated outreach effort, the Outreach team diligently continues this work independently through the end of September.

Thank you to all our volunteers – past, present, and future!

Areas of Focus

Our outreach and education efforts are geared heavily toward businesses that include but are not limited to:

• Women and Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) owned small businesses.
• Hiring Entities that directly employ or help facilitate the hiring of workers protected under specific Seattle labor laws (independent contractors, hotel business and hiring entities, domestic workers).
• Small businesses, including those that may not otherwise access OLS services or resources because of cultural, linguistic, or other institutional barriers.

Some of the main goals of our outreach work include:

• Establish OLS as a trusted resource for information and assistance to the public;  
• Increase general awareness of Seattle’s labor laws among the business community;
• Ensure small business owners understand how specific labor laws apply to them;
• Establish new partnerships with neighborhood associations and other groups who aim to accomplish specific goals in their communities in alignment with OLS’s mission.

Links

In addition to building relationships with our business community, we are happy to be able to provide numerous resources and educational materials designed to increase awareness of Seattle labor laws that apply to all businesses and encourage voluntary compliance. Some of these items are linked below but please check out the rest of our website for more.

OLS Resources and City Departments

• OLS ordinance information
• OLS materials and resources
• Translated materials and resources
• Get more information about becoming a community or business outreach partner
• Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs
• Department of Neighborhoods
• Office of Economic Development

News and Events

• Training & Events page
• Sign up here to receive our Monthly OLS newsletter