Seattle Has Just Raised It’s Minimum Wage – The Highest In The U.S.
Posted by Michelle Moquin on May 12th, 2014
Good morning!
Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S.
Seattle will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour over the coming years under a deal brokered by Mayor Ed Murray and blessed by labor and business groups alike, city leaders announced Thursday afternoon.
The new pay floor will phase in at different speeds for businesses of different sizes, but all employers will have to meet the $15 minimum wage by the end of the decade. Businesses with more than 500 employees nationwide will have a three-year phase-in period, while smaller employers get five years to ratchet up their payscales.
After reaching $15 an hour, the city’s minimum wage will automatically climb to match the rate of inflation. Even among states with relatively strong minimum wage laws, automatic increases are uncommon. Thursday’s deal will make Seattle the national leader on municipal minimum wage laws. Washington currently has the highest pay floor of any state at $9.32 per hour.
The deal was a long time coming, with Murray first indicating he wanted to establish a $15 floor back in September during the mayoral campaign. Murray created the 24-member advisory group that crafted the compromise package back in December, and the group of local business owners, restaurateurs, and labor leaders has been grinding toward an agreement for the past four months.
Approval from restaurant owners is especially noteworthy given the deal’s provisions for tipped workers. Tips can only be counted toward worker minimum pay for the next five years. After that, the separate minimum hourly pay rates for tipped and non-tipped workers will disappear, and all employees citywide will have to be paid $15 hourly or more.
An activist coalition called 15 Now led by the lone socialist member of the City Council, Kshama Sawant, has pledged to put an immediate wage hike before city voters in November if the deal falls short of the group’s goals. Another coalition, 15 For Seattle, issued a press release Thursday saying that “many of the coalitions 100+ progressive members have already endorsed” the deal but that others “are taking the Mayor’s proposal back to their organizations for review and approval.” Sawant’s ballot initiative would let employers with fewer than 250 workers phase in higher wages over three years but impose the $15 rate immediately for larger businesses.
Sawant is one of two members of the working group who is opposing the deal announced Thursday, according to a source close to the negotiations. The other isCraig Dawson, the owner of a payments processing company called Retail Lockbox. The head of the city’s Chamber of Commerce is abstaining. But the 21 votes in favor include representatives from two separate chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) chapter, and the MLK Labor Council, as well as local hotel owners, restaurant owners, a pair of Councilmen, and the venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, who has made a name for himself in recent years as a wealthy champion of economic policies that focus on the middle class rather than on business owners and the wealthy.
There are 102,000 workers in Seattle currently earning less than $15 an hour. Raising those people’s wages will put about half a billion extra dollars of spending money into Seattle workers’ pockets. As SEIU 775 president and coalition co-chair David Rolf said in a statement Thursday, the deal “will pump nearly $500 million into Washington’s economy, proving that a higher minimum wage fuels business and job growth.”
UPDATE
An earlier version of this story said Seattle’s wage floor would rise by 2.4 percent annually regardless of inflation. It will actually be pegged to a measure of inflation which officials project to be about 2.4 percent per year.
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Readers: What do you think of the above write? As usual, leave your comments below.
Christopher: I think you are reaching “regular reader” status. Since there are more than one “Christopher or Chris,” perhaps you should make your moniker unique.
Kelly: Loved reading what you want for Mother’s Day! I HOPE you got it.
Nathalie: Good for you. Maybe next time they’ll show some respect and true love.
Kristin: Your wants are probably very common for mothers with young kids. It is just the simple little things that can be such a big help. I HOPE you got some, and not only for yesterday. :)
Nichole: Again, no doubt there a quite a few mothers wanting exactly what you want. The simple things of time with the ones you love are precious these days for everyone. Time in general just to relax and take a breath, and be in the moment is my personal hot commodity. And yes, having the basic needs taken care of would certainly bring you some piece of mind. I HOPE that it all comes your way.
Melaine: Well said. My mother is the same same way. Her favorite flowers are white daisies or Hydrangeas…and the card must say something more than just “Happy Mother’s Day,” and “I Love you,” so of course I always fulfill her wish. We share a fun day too. :)
Albert: Yep, from what I know and have read, flowers is just not going to cut it for a mom with small kids. A break, a day off, a massage, a movie…and not just for Mother’s Day.
Oops out of time…running late this morning. Happy to read that all of you enjoyed Mother’s Day!
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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May 12th, 2014 at 1:22 pm
Michelle: Good idea about making my Moniker unique. I was thinking the same thing.
$15.00 an hour, now that’s a minimum wage someone can live on. I am sure if it was paid here service would be much better, as employees would have an incentive to do thier jobs with some pride.
I am wondering how it would affect employment, I don’t think it would work nation wide, or would it?
May 12th, 2014 at 10:11 pm
I’m a regular too Michelle, can I have a unique moniker?
May 13th, 2014 at 9:26 am
Louis, you don’t qualify because Christopher produces quality when he/she post something. Your post are like the rest of us, okay, but nothing special.
Besides who can stop you from coining a name. I look forward to Christopher’s comments. Yours I barely remember.
May 13th, 2014 at 9:29 am
Great article Michelle, then you have this idiot. http://thinkprogress.org/election/2014/05/13/3437177/handel-minimum-wage/
Georgia’s minimum wage is only $5.15 an hour. Since that is more than $2 lower than the federal minimum wage, low-income workers take home the higher amount of at least $7.25 an hour. That’s still not enough to get by in Georgia, where many families working for minimum wage are stuck below the poverty line.
However, according to Senate candidate Karen Handel (R), Georgia’s former Secretary of State, the government has “absolutely no business” in private sector wages. In an interview with ThinkProgress on Monday, Handel suggested that minimum wage laws should not exist:
May 13th, 2014 at 9:30 am
Courage in the face of insanity
May 13th, 2014 at 9:31 am
My hometown rocks! Bravo!
May 13th, 2014 at 9:32 am
phasing the raise in over 5 or 7 years seems like a reasonable plan
May 13th, 2014 at 9:32 am
phasing the raise in over 5 or 7 years seems like a reasonable plan
May 13th, 2014 at 9:32 am
phasing the raise in over 5 or 7 years seems like a reasonable plan
May 13th, 2014 at 9:32 am
phasing the raise in over 5 or 7 years seems like a reasonable plan
May 13th, 2014 at 9:32 am
phasing the raise in over 5 or 7 years seems like a reasonable plan
May 13th, 2014 at 9:35 am
What’s up with your blog Michelle? I can’t get in for days now I make one post and it duplicates 5 times.
May 13th, 2014 at 9:35 am
The North West is environmentally and socially progressive leaders in this country. Make sure these increases are not eaten up my landlords. Living there for many years I know you are pro bartering and exchange. Make sure someone is looking out for housing
May 13th, 2014 at 9:36 am
Congratulations to Seattle for leading the way. Now if more will follow the same methods-more of the 98% could work ONE job and support themselves and maybe a small family. Workers who aren’t constantly worried about being able to put decent food on the table for their families and keeping a roof over their heads do better work than those constantly stressed out, unhappy and wondering IF they get to eat that day.
May 13th, 2014 at 9:36 am
Everyone does better if the government gets the hell out of our lives and the free market system is allowed to reign. I wouldn’t expect socialists to understand that concept though.
May 13th, 2014 at 9:37 am
As usual, the left touts the increased spending money going to the proletariat without considering for how these higher costs will be distributed. One is through higher prices. In that case, basic economics says there will be less demand. Less demand means you don’t need as many blessed workers to serve it.
Another, the case where prices can’t be raised to offset the higher cost, is that the business owner now has less money to spend including improving the business, expanding, or just buying a new car. Think of a luncheon deli where the owner makes $75,000 and thanks to this, he now ends up making $25,000. That has just sucked $50,000 out of the economy. But, it should be tried. Maybe we can simply create prosperity this way. But perhaps someone should also try this in Kanab, Utah to see if there might be a cost of living relationship.
May 13th, 2014 at 9:37 am
Finally! I bet they end up with far fewer needing to be on the ‘dole’ too. It is absolutely unconscionable when a person can work full time to support their family and STILL fall well under the poverty line!! And this will not even put a dent in the shareholder’s balance sheets.
Other than potentially increasing them because happy employees mean they bring in more customers! Imagine a well run Wal Mart with clean isles and stocked shelves and employees smiling and helping you. Hard to imagine? Yes, but that is what a bit of a wage increase could do! Hopefully a similar change will happen in Seattle!
May 13th, 2014 at 9:39 am
The problem is that many of the uneducated and many of the illegal immigrants who have moved to the emerald city don’t stop at a small family. They feel entitled and have no shame about having the taxpayer subsidize the education healthcare and housing of their children. The poor will always be with us so why should I be forced to subsidize their lifestyle and lack of family planning?
May 13th, 2014 at 9:42 am
Emily #14, People like Ralph, other than thinking name-calling is a talent, also seems to think that a person should have to work 3 jobs to support their family, or starve. Employers should not pay for the work they receive., Employers should not pay the people who make them rich.
What would those “ignorant people” to use Ralloh’s term, figure out that without the workers, you have no riches. They haven’t figured that out yet though. They think they can continue to use and abuse and the ‘labor’ will alway be there, after all, people DO have to support themselves, so if they have no OTHER choice but to accept completely inappropriate wages for what they do, they have to.
And if minimum wage is kept to that level, the richey riches think they win. But they don’t. Eventually they will all be homeless and not be able to even GET to your stinking job offer.
May 13th, 2014 at 9:45 am
Ralph#15, You are like most republicans who claim to know a lot about something they know nothing about.
Study a little 19th century labor history. You will discover unregulated capitalism drove impoverished workers to communism and fascism. It was the democratic left that made communism unnecessary–when you’ve got livable wages, health care and pensions, who needs communism?
May 13th, 2014 at 9:47 am
Ralph#15, Alas, that’s way too simplistic. It would be impossible for government to get the hell out of our lives and let the free marker reign. Why? it’s the government that provides the institutions that make the “free” market possible.
Government mints or prints the medium of exchange, government courts enforce contracts, armed government-employed police protect private property, armed government military forces serve as collection agents for multinational corporations…and on and on.
Also, government has in this country consistently intervened in “free” market affairs–and always takes the side of the corporation, never the side of the little guys who pay their taxes. The entire chain of national guard armories that dot this nation was established as a result of the general strike of 1877; police, militia, even the army have intervened in labor disputes virtually thousands of times–and every single time they have allied themselves with the corporate owners. Yes, every single time.
In particular, at those times in our history when the capitalist system was preceived to be in danger of being replaced by something else that might actually work, the government has “entered the discussion” in a very big way:
think of the post -WWI suppression of civil liberties during the first Red Scare, the token rights granted to labor in the 1930s (but which also effectively removed the strike as a weapon), the second Red Scare following WWII–and of course the vicious response to the Occupy movement just recently.
So, yes, if the government had ever pursued a hands-off policy, wages and working conditions in this country would in all likelihood be far better than they are today in what has historically been the most repressive of all of the modern industrialized nations…
Since the Powell Memo of forty-odd years ago, corporate owners have invested a lot of money in hopes of getting the relatively simple-minded among us to accept as an article of faith that “everyone does better if the government gets out of our lives and the free market system is allowed to reign.”
They want this because government is the only possible counterbalance to their immense power, and their PR is slick enough to get an awful lot of folks to mouth these “truths” in the simple belief that these are their own ideas–and to vote against their own interests.
Meanwhile, nobody seems to be in any hurry to end the massive subsidies government shovels into all the “free” enterprise corporations–even as these corporations all whine about the terrible government intervention in their businesses.
Sorry to hear that in at least one case, obviously, this propaganda effort has paid off!