Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S.

[Cebu_4_2]

Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S. (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/01/3433227/seattle-15-dollar-minimum-wage/)

By Alan Pyke (http://thinkprogress.org/person/apyke/)http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/themes/tp4/images/bird_blue_16.png (https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=PykeA) May 1, 2014 at 1:49 pm Updated: May 3, 2014 at 11:34 am

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Seattle-minimum-wage-555x285.jpg CREDIT: AP

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 (http://www.kirotv.com/videos/news/kiro-live-event-1/vt6Gk/).

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 (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/01/06/3122991/seattle-minimum-wage/), with Murray first indicating he wanted to establish a $15 floor back in September (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/09/25/is-seattle-headed-for-a-15-minimum-wage/) 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 (http://blogs.seattletimes.com/opinionnw/2014/04/29/kshama-sawant-has-already-won-the-seattle-15-wage-debate/), 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 (http://69.195.124.169/%7Eonefivg2/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/15-for-seattle-Release-5-01-14.pdf)” 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 (http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2014/01/seattles-push-for-15hour-minimum-wage-takes-shape/) who is opposing the deal announced Thursday, according to a source close to the negotiations. The other is Craig Dawson (http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2006/05/22/smallb1.html?page=all), 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 (http://www.pugetsoundsage.org/downloads/Economic%20and%20Equity%20Outcomes%20of%20a%20$15% 20Minimum%20Wage%20in%20Seattle_1.pdf) 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 (http://seiu775.org/15/).”
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 (http://murray.seattle.gov/murray-we-have-a-deal-seattle-workers-are-getting-a-raise/#sthash.vwy0x9hY.8hS2ALmo.dpbs) to be about 2.4 percent per year.

[mick silver]

all this will do is put more people out of a job , nothing more

[gunny highway]

Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S. (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/01/3433227/seattle-15-dollar-minimum-wage/)

By Alan Pyke (http://thinkprogress.org/person/apyke/)http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/themes/tp4/images/bird_blue_16.png (https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=PykeA) May 1, 2014 at 1:49 pm Updated: May 3, 2014 at 11:34 am

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Seattle-minimum-wage-555x285.jpg CREDIT: AP


There are 102,000 (http://www.pugetsoundsage.org/downloads/Economic%20and%20Equity%20Outcomes%20of%20a%20$15% 20Minimum%20Wage%20in%20Seattle_1.pdf) 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 (http://seiu775.org/15/).”

This assumes that the business owners forced to pay higher wages to their unskilled labor force are going to employ the same number of people as they did before this law. What will likely happen is they will lay off half the workforce, requiring the other half to work more days and longer hours. So, unemployment will go up, Big Mac prices will rise, useless unskilled laborers will feel even more entitled, the vampire politicians will be able to pat themselves on the back for a job "well done" and the state of Washington will see negligible gains in it's economy. This will be a revenue-neutral situation. Your wage should be base on your skill set and the amount of experience you have, nothing more, nothing less. There is no such thing as a "living wage". In fact, I'm libel to slap the next person who uses that phrase in a discussion with me.

[Cebu_4_2]

Employers will not have workers working longer hours, if they do they become entangled in the ACA tax. I think they will have skeleton shifts if they survive at all. Less employment and less business in small companies. The minimum wage was already $9.32 which is quite high, this is an experiment for us all to watch. I don't see it working well for anyone longer term.

[EE_]

This will also cause people that are currently making $15 an hour, to demand more money.
Maybe this is what they really want? They can't get the inflation they're looking for now, so maybe wage inflation is what they're after.

[Ponce]

Many will closed down or move and many employees will loose a lot of free stuff (like I read last week) no more free parking, no more free food, higher medical, and a lot more................I never belonged to a union because I believe that your boss will pay what you are worth..... my employees always made 25% of what I made either in earnings or bonuses and even had free drinks and tortillas hahahahahaha.

V

[madfranks]

When I got out of college, my first job paid me $10/hr. This is a huge disincentive for people to get educated and try to work their way up the ladder. Why go to college and earn $15 when you can drop out of high school and earn $15?

Of course, as gunny pointed out, raising the minimum wage does not pump more money into worker's pockets, it will cause more of them to be unemployed. Remember decades ago we used to have workers like gas station attendants, theater ushers, elevator stewards? All those jobs disappeared after minimum wages made it uneconomical to hire people with low productivity like that. Watch as more jobs become automated, more workers get laid off and fewer young and unskilled people find work.

[madfranks]

Also watch crime and gang activity increase. When young people can't be productive with their time, what do you think groups of young men with nothing to do will end up doing with their time?

[Silver Rocket Bitches!]

So if minimum wage workers are currently making $9 / hr and soon they'll be making $15 / hr....what are the people currently making $15 / hr going to do? Just take it? Hell no! They're going to demand $21 an hour! Those making $21 will want $27 an hour and so on.

[madfranks]

So if minimum wage workers are currently making $9 / hr and soon they'll be making $15 / hr....what are the people currently making $15 / hr going to do? Just take it? Hell no! They're going to demand $21 an hour! Those making $21 will want $27 an hour and so on.

And meanwhile, there is an ever growing minority of people who realize if they want to make more money, they need to work harder and develop their skills.

[Ares]

And meanwhile, there is an ever growing minority of people who realize if they want to make more money, they need to work harder and develop their skills.

Yep, why I've been teaching myself programming. Only way I see keeping myself as well as my skill set marketable. Automation and robotics will replace the majority of those workers in the next 5 years. Keep this thread in mind and visit it in 2019 to see if I was right or not.

[Cebu_4_2]

Yep, why I've been teaching myself programming. Only way I see keeping myself as well as my skill set marketable. Automation and robotics will replace the majority of those workers in the next 5 years. Keep this thread in mind and visit it in 2019 to see if I was right or not.

Bookmarking and will call you in 2019 ok? :cool:

[Sparky]

Many excellent points being made in this thread. Glad to be watching this experiment from 3000 miles away.

[osoab]

I read in another article that for some it will be 4 years before they have to pay the full 15. These were companies with more than 200 or so employees. Small businesses, they get 7 years to pony up.

Is the mayor up for re-election?

[singular_me]

got it:

The push for a $15 minimum transformed the November élections

[vacuum]

Maybe this will push Seattle towards implementing more robotic solutions to replace cheap human labor.

It could also reduce congestion in the city. Less people will be working within city limits. Only businesses which really do need to be located within the city will be able to afford being in the city.

[zap]

Here is CA its $ 9.00 per hour starting July 1 2014, then by Jan 2016 it will be $10.00.

I don't know what it should be.... I don't think it should be 15.00 for flipping burgers though? but who can live on 40 hours a week at 9 a hour here.

[Cebu_4_2]

Nobody hires more than 29 hours here, minimum or otherwise.

[madfranks]

Here is CA its $ 9.00 per hour starting July 1 2014, then by Jan 2016 it will be $10.00.

I don't know what it should be.... I don't think it should be 15.00 for flipping burgers though? but who can live on 40 hours a week at 9 a hour here.

Not everyone who works minimum wage jobs is a sole provider. What about kids working after school who just need some spending money? What about teens during the summer months who would rather make $5/hr washing dishes than doing nothing? What about college students, who have three other roommates and they all share the rent together? Minimum wage laws makes it illegal to hire these people.

I started working when I was 13, for $3/hr, answering phones and taking pizza orders for a few hours on busy nights. It was all under the table, but I learned basic work skills there and began building a foundation of employment and skills. I don't work in the restaurant industry anymore, but the discipline, time management, and customer service I learned there helped me get my first job in my intended career. If my first boss had followed minimum wage laws, I would have never had that experience. And as a kid, I didn't need $9 or $15 an hour, my $3/hr was enough for me to start some small savings and have fun on the weekends, that's what it was for.

One of the problems with minimum wage laws is that it makes it much harder for these young and unskilled people to enter the workforce and gain experience. These young people are unable to learn basic work skills because it's against the law to hire them for what they're worth. Then all of a sudden you have groups of young adults who have never worked a day in their life. Study after study has shown that minimum wage laws hurt the young and unskilled the most.

[gunny highway]

minimum wage jobs are minimum wage for a reason. they usually require little, if any, skill and absolutely no commitment from the employee to respect their job. that's why there's high turnover. and if you are trying to support a family on a minimum wage job then you've made some really bad decisions. it is not your employers responsibility to make sure you have everything you need, it is your responsibility to be sure your employer is happy with your work and that you are carrying your weight. that's where raised and promotions come from. if you have no skills to offer other than knowing the button layout on the deepfryer then your employer shouldn't be obligated to offer a wage that is clearly way too high for what he's getting from you. this is just going to feed the entitled attitude the newest generation exhibits already. and like others in this thread have asked, what about the guy already making $15/hr who actually has something to offer his employer? he's going to want $20-25/hr. and so on and so forth on up the pay scale. where does the money come from? cut staff and raise prices, it's the only way.

[Cebu_4_2]

So it's been a month now, I wonder how this is working out? I will see if I can find anything...

Measure to repeal Seattle $15 minimum wage moves closer to ballot

Thursday, July 03, 2014 2:14 p.m. EDT
By Alex Dobuzinskis
(Reuters) - A Seattle business group has submitted signatures to try to force a public vote to repeal a municipal measure that would raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour, a leader of the organization said on Thursday.

Forward Seattle, which represents restaurants, retailers and other businesses, handed in just under 20,000 signatures to the Seattle City Clerk on Wednesday, more than the 16,510 needed to qualify for the November ballot, said group co-chair Angela Cough.

The proposal would ask Seattle voters to repeal a $15 minimum wage increase that was approved by a unanimous vote of the City Council last month and signed by Mayor Ed Murray. It is scheduled to go into effect over several years.

The move by city leaders marked the first time a major U.S. city has committed to such a high base level of pay. Seattle is among several cities leading the way in a national push by Democrats to raise minimum wages, and the plan in the Pacific Northwest city has drawn criticism from business groups.

Under the terms of the measure, businesses with fewer than 500 workers must raise wages to the $15 mark in the next seven years, an increase of more than 60 percent from Seattle's current minimum wage of $9.32 an hour.

Larger businesses must meet that level within three years, or four if they provide health insurance.

"Right now, the (city) ordinance on the table we think is going to be pretty damaging to the city from the business perspective, and from the workers' perspective," Cough said.

It will hurt workers because a number of businesses are preparing to move from Seattle or halt expansions, she said.
In a separate attempt to block the measure, the International Franchise Association filed a federal lawsuit last month that alleges the measure illegally discriminates against franchises because it would force them to pay employees $15 an hour within three years while other business owners would have more time.

Yes for Seattle, a coalition that supports the wage hike, earlier this week submitted a complaint to local prosecutors accusing Forward Seattle signature gatherers of lying by saying the proposed ballot measure was in support of hiking the minimum wage to $15 an hour, rather than a repeal attempt.

Cough declined to comment on the complaint.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

[Shami-Amourae]

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law goes into effect on April 1, 2015. As that date approaches, restaurants across the city are making the financial decision to close shop. The Washington Policy Center writes (http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/blog/post/seattles-15-wage-law-factor-restaurant-closings) that “closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront.”


Of course, restaurants close for a variety of reasons. But, according to Seattle Magazine (http://www.seattlemag.com/article/why-are-so-many-seattle-restaurants-closing-lately), the “impending minimum wage hike to $15 per hour” is playing a “major factor.” That’s not surprising, considering “about 36% of restaurant earnings go to paying labor costs.” Seattle Magazine (http://www.seattlemag.com/article/why-are-so-many-seattle-restaurants-closing-lately),


“Washington Restaurant Association’s Anthony Anton puts it this way: “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”


“He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.


“With the minimum wage spike, however, he says that if restaurant owners made no changes, the labor cost in quick service restaurants would rise to 42 percent and in full service restaurants to 47 percent.”

[EE_]

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law goes into effect on April 1, 2015. As that date approaches, restaurants across the city are making the financial decision to close shop. The Washington Policy Center writes (http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/blog/post/seattles-15-wage-law-factor-restaurant-closings) that “closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront.”


Of course, restaurants close for a variety of reasons. But, according to Seattle Magazine (http://www.seattlemag.com/article/why-are-so-many-seattle-restaurants-closing-lately), the “impending minimum wage hike to $15 per hour” is playing a “major factor.” That’s not surprising, considering “about 36% of restaurant earnings go to paying labor costs.” Seattle Magazine (http://www.seattlemag.com/article/why-are-so-many-seattle-restaurants-closing-lately),


“Washington Restaurant Association’s Anthony Anton puts it this way: “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”


“He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.


“With the minimum wage spike, however, he says that if restaurant owners made no changes, the labor cost in quick service restaurants would rise to 42 percent and in full service restaurants to 47 percent.”

It's good to see the free market working.
The city/state forces the minimum wage increase on businesses, business accepts it and now the free market sorts it out by adjusting to the increase. That's the way things are supposed to work.

[Twisted Titan]

Maybe this will push Seattle towards. Cmplementing more robotic solutions to replace cheap human labor.

It could also reduce congestion in the city. Less people will be working within city limits. Only businesses which really do need to be located within the city will be able to afford being in the city.



You are only going to be left with coporate store A B and C moms and pops will be squeezed and when they are all but dead mega stores will apply for a credit so they do not have to comply.

[Twisted Titan]

“He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.


It will be a cold day in hell before I shuffle around a quarter of a million dollars and if im good enough profit is left on the table that would qualify me for food stamps and other social services.

Now i better understand whyb

Restaturants where the last places to accept credit cards , cash allowed them to keep more of what they made.

[Shami-Amourae]

Another way to look at it...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vXs5TaIa7c

Basically the government is driving automation forward, even though the Free Market is reluctant.

[Shami-Amourae]

“He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.

The only profitable way to run a small business these days is literally by yourself. The second you hire one person your business becomes less and less profitable per scale.

[Twisted Titan]

The only profitable way to run a small business these days is literally by yourself. The second you hire one person your business becomes less and less profitable per scale.


And then you are targeted at the local level with rules, regulates as soon as you do enough business at they catch wind of it.

You have to stay underground.

[Hitch]

The only profitable way to run a small business these days is literally by yourself. The second you hire one person your business becomes less and less profitable per scale.

Someone gave me good advise. Either stay a small business, yourself basically, or go big 20 or more employees. Anything between that is not worth the time.

[madfranks]

“It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”

Of course it's a political problem, they're the assholes who passed the law. Just because these retarded bureaucrats don't understand basic economics or math doesn't make it a math problem.

[Ponce]

One of my friends here has an Italian restaurant and he told me that his waitress many time makes more money than himself........

V

[Uncle Salty]

Restaurants should go to a gratuity included surcharge on the bill. Pay the employees by the hour and the tips go to owner to cover the costs of higher hourly wages with some tips going to a pool to pay waiters and kitchen staff.

Just pass it all on to the customers who thinks that living minimum wages are so friggin great.

[gunny highway]

i own a business, granted it's not a restaurant or any sort of service type of business, but i do know it is expensive to employ someone. my company does landscape architecture and civil engineering and my partners and i are at a point now where we're interviewing people for the first time. the salary we offered one prospective employee $36,000 which is the equivalent of $17.30/hr for a full-time position as an entry level grunt. This is for someone with a college education and little to no experience. this person came back to us and wanted more, we liked him so we offered more, $19.23/hr, or $40,000 per year. In my opinion, pretty good for right out of school. both of these wages are less than $20/hr and this is more or less what you will be offered if you are just out of school and wet behind the ears. there is a lot left to teach you and i'm not gong to break the bank doing it. you have to prove your worth to me. you have to prove your commitment to your job. you have to show you care about the end product. you have to constantly better yourself and show me that your are bettering yourself. That's how you get ahead. that last thing is the most important and the one thing you will never get out of an entitled, 18 year-old douchbag working at McDonald's. he doesn't have to prove his worth or give a shit. he's getting paid $15 an hour, not because he's worth it or has something to offer his employer, but because it was decreed from on high. i wonder what the person i'm trying to hire thinks about this bullshit. think about it. in a best case scenario, i can only pay this potential employee $19.23/hr. After 4 years of college, internships and a dedication to bettering his future he's only going to make roughly $4/hr more than the guy who has done nothing for himself, gotten no education, is a burden to his family and offers no unique skill or knowledge.

There is no such thing as a "living wage". It is not your employers job to make sure you have everything you need.

[Twisted Titan]

When the great reset happens there is going to be a mighty gnashing of teeth when suckups have to reckon they have nothing to offer and they will get nothing in return and they is nobody to take from productive people

[singular_me]

well in the UK, there is another side to the story :)

there always will be people ready to work for less

===========
Retailers have come under fire after investigations by The Independent revealed that not a single high street retail chain has guaranteed staff the living wage.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/not-a-single-high-street-chain-will-commit-to-the-living-wage-investigation-finds-10109741.html