Mayor Murray announces his $15 wage plan
Posted by Lynn Thompson
In a decade, Seattle’s minimum wage workers would be making double what they are today, under a plan announced this morning by Mayor Ed Murray.

Murray’s plan calls for the city’s minimum wage to climb to $15 an hour, phased in over three to seven years depending on the size of business and whether workers receive tips or benefits in addition to salary. After that, the wage would be tied to the Consumer Price Index, with estimates showing it rising above $18 an hour by 2025. Current minimum wage is $9.32 per hour.


Mayor Ed Murray announces his minimum wage proposal. Photo by Times staff photographer Steve Ringman.

The deal was finalized Wednesday night, after Murray returned from a study mission with the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to New York City.

“Once again Seattle has chosen to collaborate and Seattle workers are going to get a raise,” Murray said at a morning news conference.

Murray said 21 of the 24 members on the committee he assembled to create the proposal have agreed, indicating broad support. He thanked his committee members for taking risks and showing courage. “I believe they are going to move this city forward,” he said.

The agreement defines small business as 500 employees or fewer. Large businesses with more than 500 workers will have to pay workers $15 by 2017 if they don’t also receive health care. In that case, they get an extra year.

Fewer than 1 percent of businesses in the city have more than 500 workers, but those businesses employ about 30,000 workers, or about a third of those now making less than $15 an hour, according to a study for the city by the Evans School at the University of Washington.

Small businesses will have until 2019 to reach $15 an hour if they do not offer health care or tips. All other small businesses will have to pay $15 an hour by 2021. There are no exemptions for certain industries, organizations or class of employees.

The long phase-in for some businesses and the definition of small business has already been denounced by 15 Now activists who promote their initiative effort as a “real $15.” Activists on Saturday voted to go forward with signature-gathering to place a measure on the November ballot.

The plan announced by Murray this morning falls short of the wishes of “15 Now,” an organization urging adoption of a $15-per-hour minimum wage. The organization held its first national conference Saturday at Franklin High School. With more than 250 people in attendance, it voted to begin a signature-gathering campaign that could result in a ballot measure to amend the Seattle City Charter.

The charter amendment backed by “15 Now” would have no phase-in for big businesses, requiring them to start paying $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2015.

Murray, though, said he expected the deal would avoid competing minimum-wage initiatives on the November ballot. He said he doesn’t expect business group OneSeattle to move forward with an initiative.

David Rolf, co-chair of the mayor’s committee and president of SEIU 775, said the deal involved a lot of compromise on both sides, and he thanked the business leaders for their creativity in helping make it happen. He said the fast-food workers who went on strike last year were the real leaders who got the minimum-wage conversation started.

The agreement will now move to the City Council, which will be tasked with creating an ordinance.

“Now we have to act,” said Councilmember Nick Licata, also a member of the mayor’s committee. “I will work with my colleagues to pass this proposal with the minimum amount of tinkering possible. The council and all of us, I believe, have to embrace this spirit of cooperation. We cannot tear it apart.”



http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014...-1030-a-m/

I guess it's unsurprising that seattle legalized pot in 2012. you almost have to be stoned to think this a good idea.

Will be interesting to watch and see what happens. May not affect the high tech part, and Boeing is all union, but there will still be some impacts.

Some college graduates don't even make $15 an hour in many parts of the country. Once again liberals prove that they believe money can be grown on trees.

Econ 101 says this is stupid, but yet we do it anyway. Why? Because in this case the politicians merely think of what people should to have to live instead of the bigger, broader picture. The big picture is that you should not confuse minimum wage with living wage. Minimum wage jobs are not supposed to support you or a family. It is supposed to be a starting point in life to give you skills and experience. And then you move on to a better job with better pay and benefits. Instead of helping people to improve themselves, Seattle is going to force businesses with slim margins to subsidize people beyond the value they bring to the business.

My hope is that these liberals love it and stay there. Don't move to conservative states once things go wrong. Stay where you are at!!

Double the minimum wage and double the cost of fast food, groceries, and a lot of other things. People will simply shop outside the Seattle city limits.

I'm sure people are tired of hearing me say the exact same thing whenever the subject heaves into view, but the real minimum wage is zero, and to the extent that government artificially raises the price for unskilled labor, they will decrease the demand for it. and then more people will make the real minimum wage.

Seattle will be the business hub of the west coast before long.

Oh wait...

Did that happen already?

Dem Rep. Barbara Lee Supports Raising Minimum Wage In California To . . . $26 Per Hour…



Dems couldn’t be any more clueless if they tried.

Quote:California Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee expressed support for a $26 minimum wage in her state — a move Republican congressman Andy Harris encouraged, assuming jobs would rapidly flee California to his state of Maryland.

Lee and Harris appeared Friday on CNN’s “Crossfire,” hosted by former Obama advisor Van Jones and former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. The panel discussed the proposed increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour.

“Let me ask you this question, you’re a good advocate for this,” Gingrich asked Lee. “The mayor of Seattle is proposing that the minimum wage ought to go up to $15 an hour.”

“Good for him,” Lee responded. “In California — more than likely, from what I remembered — a living wage where people could live and take care of their families and move toward achieving the American dream was about $25, $26 an hour.”

“So would you support that as a minimum wage for California?” Gingrich asked.

“Absolutely I would support it for California. I think the regional factors –”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/02/califo...ate-video/

I understand the idea of a minimum wage...it's certainly admirable. The problem is that it helps some but it also hurts the most vulnerable. The lowest-quality workers that add the least value are priced out of the market.

A higher minimum wage isn't going to hurt the wealthy or redistribute wealth. It's simply going to raise prices for the very people it's designed to help.

(05-03-2014 07:46 PM)supertiger Wrote:  I understand the idea of a minimum wage...it's certainly admirable. The problem is that it helps some but it also hurts the most vulnerable. The lowest-quality workers that add the least value are priced out of the market.

A higher minimum wage isn't going to hurt the wealthy or redistribute wealth. It's simply going to raise prices for the very people it's designed to help.

Actually, it will CRUSH the middle class. Those who can't afford things now will still not be able to afford them after the market adjusts for higher minimum wage. The middle class on the other hand will see their salaries erode with the 2.5% raises to offset the hyper-inflation a $26/hr minimum wage would create.

This is very good news for Momentum Machine
the maker of automated hamburger-making machines.

I don't just want automatic hamburger machines, I want underground tubes to deliver them to me at home also.

The problem with the minimum wage is that it's a zero-sum proposition. Yes it helps some people, but it can't help anyone without hurting someone else. The left says that's fine, it just hurts the greedy capitalists who already have more than they need. But they didn't get more than they need by being the losers in deals like this. And they have ways to shift the losses elsewhere.

(05-03-2014 08:18 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  I don't just want automatic hamburger machines, I want underground tubes to deliver them to me at home also.

Super-sized pneumatic fries.

The minimum wage needs to be increased.

But the companies that focus completely on the bottom line will kill jobs to maintain their profit margin should it be increased.

I don't know how to go about it, but the minimum wage needs to be increased. Period.

(05-03-2014 08:30 PM)mathenis89 Wrote:  The minimum wage needs to be increased.

But the companies that focus completely on the bottom line will kill jobs to maintain their profit margin should it be increased.

I don't know how to go about it, but the minimum wage needs to be increased. Period.

Why?

(05-03-2014 08:31 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(05-03-2014 08:30 PM)mathenis89 Wrote:  The minimum wage needs to be increased.

But the companies that focus completely on the bottom line will kill jobs to maintain their profit margin should it be increased.

I don't know how to go about it, but the minimum wage needs to be increased. Period.

Why?

Because the current minimum wage is not a living wage. It is not enough for someone to live on.

(05-03-2014 08:30 PM)mathenis89 Wrote:  The minimum wage needs to be increased.

But the companies that focus completely on the bottom line will kill jobs to maintain their profit margin should it be increased.

I don't know how to go about it, but the minimum wage needs to be increased. Period.

unperiod.

what do you think that increasing the minimum wage would accomplish?

(05-03-2014 08:30 PM)mathenis89 Wrote:  The minimum wage needs to be increased.

But the companies that focus completely on the bottom line will kill jobs to maintain their profit margin should it be increased.

I don't know how to go about it, but the minimum wage needs to be increased. Period.

WHY, do you think Companies are in business?