Seattle min wage $15, highest in nation

[Moonglow]

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 by 2.4 percent each year regardless of 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.

We will see the economic health of Seattle reflected in this move.

One concern is that as cities raise their minimum wage, more people will move there. We saw this (for a different reason) with the Reagan recession and it put those cities under more stress.

Even at 15 bucks and hour, it would still not be enough to live comfortably in such an expensive place...

 

[norwegen]

Welcome to Amerika, where the government determines pay schedules.

 

[Esmeralda]

Welcome to Amerika, where the government determines pay schedules.

Yes, and that is a good thing; otherwise, we would be a third world country.

 

[blackhawk]

If your running a small business with a average or slightly above or below average profit margin and now you have to start paying $15.00 dollars a hour not to mention increased cost for providing healthcare or paying the tax if you choose not to how would you keep from going from being in the black to the red?

 

[Pop23]

If your running a small business with a average or slightly above or below average profit margin and now you have to start paying $15.00 dollars a hour not to mention increased cost for providing healthcare or paying the tax if you choose not to how would you keep from going from being in the black to the red?

Don't forget that the increased wages also mean the employer also has to pay increased payroll taxes.

Reduced profits and increased taxes.

That's not a good business plan, but who cares right?

 

[Missourian]

Prediction...by the end of the decade 75% of these jobs will be automated.

It's a simple cost/benefit equation.

The machines will be cheaper than paying a human.

 

[whitehall]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

 

[Zander]

0.8% of workers in Washington make the minimum wage....0.8%

 

[Esmeralda]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

You've visited but have not lived there for a couple of decades.

What you say is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out; the same kind of thing exists in large cities world wide. The Seattle metropolitan area has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them, 3 to 4 mile hikes in most of them. A visitor to the city rarely sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown; with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a day trip away; with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip; with the Pacific Coast Range and Cascade Range nearby; within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC.; with the Olympic National Forest (a rain forest) on the Olympic Peninsula, a couple of hours drive from Seattle; and so on. As well, Seattle has some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. You don't really know anything about it.

 

[Esmeralda]

Prediction...by the end of the decade 75% of these jobs will be automated.

It's a simple cost/benefit equation.

The machines will be cheaper than paying a human.

These kinds of predictions and other the sky is falling predictions have been around for as long as I can remember, and that's about 40 years. Every time the minimum wage is raised, or raising it is discussed, the same old predictions arise. Yep. It's the end of civilization as we know it.

 

[Flopper]

Seattle traditionally maintains a relative low unemployment rate among large cities, currently 5.3%, and also has a relative high minimum wage, soon to be the highest in the nation. Seattle is quite liberal compared to most cities with a high sales taxes and property taxes, and many public facities and service not available in other cities. Seattle is an example of a very liberal city that does quite well financially.

 

[whitehall]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

This is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out. Seattle has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them. A visitor to the city rarelIy sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown, with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a few miles away, with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip, with the Pacific Range and Cascase Range less than a day's drive away, within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC. As well, Seattlehas some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. And so on. You don't really know anything about it.

The reason that a visitor to Seattle "rarely" sees the clean and brilliant parks and recreation areas is because they are freaking isolated. The majority of Seattle tourists experience the filth and piss and semi-permanent homes for degenerates in public parks because drunks and degenerates need to be close to the center of the city and drugs and alcohol. My point is that the fascist control of minimum wages should (in theory) create a new utopia where there would be no degenerate underground but the exact opposite is probably going to happen. Either small businesses get away with off the books hiring or they will go under and drift away. The hard core degenerates will continue to piss on the ground and scare kids away no matter what.

 

[Noomi]

The new minimum wage increase to $15/hour will inevitably result in large scale layoffs, and business shutdowns. There is no way some businesses can continue to operate, and generate profit with this increase.

Of course they can. Businesses earn a lot more than you think, but they care more about making as much money as they possibly can, than about paying their employees a decent wage.

 

[Missourian]

Prediction...by the end of the decade 75% of these jobs will be automated.

It's a simple cost/benefit equation.

The machines will be cheaper than paying a human.

These kinds of predictions and other the sky is falling predictions have been around for as long as I can remember, and that's about 40 years. Every time the minimum wage is raised, or raising it is discussed, the same old predictions arise. Yep. It's the end of civilization as we know it.

Google's self-driving car passes 700,000 accident-free miles, can now avoid cyclists, stop at railroad crossings | ExtremeTech

Nuff said.

 

[Flopper]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

I've lived in the Seattle metropolitan area for a number of years and often visited there. They have some of the most beautiful parks of any major metropolitan area. There are over 400 parks in area containing over 10,000 acres. In fact, the parks are one of the biggest attractions, featuring miles of bike trails, hiking trails, old growth forest, mountains, beaches, playgrounds, ball fields, summer concerts, and theater . There're not many metropolitan areas with parks that you can watch eagles fishing for salmon in the early morning and pods of whales swimming off the coast that afternoon.

 

[Esmeralda]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

This is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out. Seattle has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them. A visitor to the city rarelIy sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown, with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a few miles away, with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip, with the Pacific Range and Cascase Range less than a day's drive away, within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC. As well, Seattlehas some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. And so on. You don't really know anything about it.

The reason that a visitor to Seattle "rarely" sees the clean and brilliant parks and recreation areas is because they are freaking isolated. The majority of Seattle tourists experience the filth and piss and semi-permanent homes for degenerates in public parks because drunks and degenerates need to be close to the center of the city and drugs and alcohol. My point is that the fascist control of minimum wages should (in theory) create a new utopia where there would be no degenerate underground but the exact opposite is probably going to happen. Either small businesses get away with off the books hiring or they will go under and drift away. The hard core degenerates will continue to piss on the ground and scare kids away no matter what.

"The reason that a visitor to Seattle rarely sees the clean and brilliant parks and recreation areas is because they are freaking isolated", according to your post. LMAO That is so not so. I lived in two major neighborhoods in Seattle, the Magnolia neighborhood and West Seattle. Magnolia is a 10 minute drive from downtown Seattle, not isolated. It has Discovery Park, which has miles and miles of hiking/walking/running trails and views of the Puget Sound. West Seattle has Lincoln Park, which also has miles of hiking/running trails and a beautiful beach/water front. West Seattle also has Alki Beach. West Seattle is a 5-10 minute drive from downtown Seattle. Seattle also has other similar parks as close to downtown as those I mentioned. Again, you don't know anything: you do not know what you are talking about.

Your perception of Seattle is not what I hear from most people who go there. You apparently visited a liberal city and hated it on sight because it is liberal. That is your problem. I've been to most of the big cities in the US, most of the European Capital cities, and my of the great cities of the East. All of them have problems with problematic areas. The most memorable for me was Vancouver, Canada when I was visiting it with friends from Germany. We were stopped by a policeman for entering a neighborhood in the city because of the drug, prostitutiona and crime in that area. We were allowed to go there, but were advised not to. I have never had that happen anywhere else, and I've been to over 40 countries. Zurich is a city with the same kind of problem, primarily due to a drug culture. Aside from that, Zurich is a beautiful city. Every big city has 'ugly' spots. But, in general, overall, Seattle is one of the most beautiful and livable cities in the world. You are prejudiced, apparently because you hate liberals. How foolish.

And, what you call fascist control of wages does not create third world cities. It is just the opposite. Without any control of wages, people would be paid wages on which they would not be able to live. We would have a third world country with not only alcoholics, drug adicts, and the mentally ill on the streets, but children and families begging in the gutters. That's what people like you want.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

For Sale in Seattle

$450,000
See Homes for Sale in America?s Most Walkable Cities | Zillow Blog

$1,100,000
Laurelhurst Real Estate & Laurelhurst Seattle WA Homes for Sale | Coldwell Banker

Holy crap !

Neither of them would go over 150k here. Our $9 hr min wage buys a helluva lot more than your $15 hr min wage.

LMAO

The bottom one for over a million is beyond obscene. Where I live you could buy 10 of those for that price.

If I'm going to overpay to that extent, at least let it be somewhere, where you're not depressed for 9 months out of the year.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

What has anyone done to earn this increase in wage?

They work, a hard demanding job. What the heck kind of question is that? This is supposedly the richest country in the world. In the richest country in the world, the lowest payed worker should make a living wage.

What exactly is your definition of a "living wage" ? Enough to buy that million dollar home that was pictured ?

Frankly, kids entering the work force are wet behind the ears, and they don't deserve the so-called living wage.

At the very least, kids entering the work force should be exempt from employers having to pay that kind of salary. If you're going to be paying a 16 year old $15 bucks and hour, then I deserve $100.00 an hour. I've paid my dues and sweated for over 35 years in the workforce, and I'll be damned if a 16 year old deserves half of what I currently make.

 

[Flopper]

This is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out. Seattle has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them. A visitor to the city rarelIy sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown, with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a few miles away, with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip, with the Pacific Range and Cascase Range less than a day's drive away, within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC. As well, Seattlehas some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. And so on. You don't really know anything about it.

The reason that a visitor to Seattle "rarely" sees the clean and brilliant parks and recreation areas is because they are freaking isolated. The majority of Seattle tourists experience the filth and piss and semi-permanent homes for degenerates in public parks because drunks and degenerates need to be close to the center of the city and drugs and alcohol. My point is that the fascist control of minimum wages should (in theory) create a new utopia where there would be no degenerate underground but the exact opposite is probably going to happen. Either small businesses get away with off the books hiring or they will go under and drift away. The hard core degenerates will continue to piss on the ground and scare kids away no matter what.

"The reason that a visitor to Seattle rarely sees the clean and brilliant parks and recreation areas is because they are freaking isolated", according to your post. LMAO That is so not so. I lived in two major neighborhoods in Seattle, the Magnolia neighborhood and West Seattle. Magnolia is a 10 minute drive from downtown Seattle, not isolated. It has Discovery Park, which has miles and miles of hiking/walking/running trails and views of the Puget Sound. West Seattle has Lincoln Park, which also has miles of hiking/running trails and a beautiful beach/water front. West Seattle also has Alki Beach. West Seattle is a 5-10 minute drive from downtown Seattle. Seattle also has other similar parks as close to downtown as those I mentioned. Again, you don't know anything: you do not know what you are talking about.

Your perception of Seattle is not what I hear from most people who go there. You apparently visited a liberal city and hated it on sight because it is liberal. That is your problem. I've been to most of the big cities in the US, most of the European Capital cities, and my of the great cities of the East. All of them have problems with problematic areas. The most memorable for me was Vancouver, Canada when I was visiting it with friends from Germany. We were stopped by a policeman for entering a neighborhood in the city because of the drug, prostitutiona and crime in that area. We were allowed to go there, but were advised not to. I have never had that happen anywhere else, and I've been to over 40 countries. Zurich is a city with the same kind of problem, primarily due to a drug culture. Aside from that, Zurich is a beautiful city. Every big city has 'ugly' spots. But, in general, overall, Seattle is one of the most beautiful and livable cities in the world. You are prejudiced, apparently because you hate liberals. How foolish.

And, what you call fascist control of wages does not create third world cities. It is just the opposite. Without any control of wages, people would be paid wages on which they would not be able to live. We would have a third world country with not only alcoholics, drug adicts, and the mentally ill on the streets, but children and families begging in the gutters. That's what people like you want.

The statue of Lenin, the giant troll under the bridge in Fremont, the parade of nude bike riders, the big gay rights parade, Buddhist temples, and legalized marijuana does tend to turn off the conservatives.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

You've visited but have not lived there for a couple of decades.

What you say is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out; the same kind of thing exists in large cities world wide. The Seattle metropolitan area has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them, 3 to 4 mile hikes in most of them. A visitor to the city rarely sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown; with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a day trip away; with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip; with the Pacific Coast Range and Cascade Range nearby; within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC.; with the Olympic National Forest (a rain forest) on the Olympic Peninsula, a couple of hours drive from Seattle; and so on. As well, Seattle has some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. You don't really know anything about it.

I've lived there, although it was 30 years ago. By far the #1 thing I remember most was the gray and wet. It's like living in a black and white photo for months on end. You couldn't pay me a high enough wage to ever coax me back to that miserable place.