Sunday, May 04, 2014

True America: Seattle Offers $15/hr!

Seattle has a long history of progressive politics going back beyond the "Wobblies"; unlike some smaller left coast cities that talk the talk, Seattle walks the walk too. Seattle civic leaders stepped up and proposed to raise it's minimum municipal wage to $15.00/hr over the next decade. Tips can only be counted by businesses as wages for the next five years. The move by Mayor Ed Murry was blessed by both labor and business groups and announced Thursday afternoon. A coalition called "15 Now" and led by the only socialist member of the City Council, Kshama Sawant pledged if the deal falls short of their expectations, an immediate wage hike initiative will be placed before city voters in November. Sawant's initiative would allow employers with fewer than 250 workers to phase in higher wages over 3 years but the full rate would be imposed immediately on larger businesses. Sawant opposed the deal to phase in higher wages, but there were 21 votes in favor of the measure in the working group raging from labor organizations to a venture capitalist. The City Council must vote to approve the measure. Currently 102,000 workers in Seattle earn less than $15 an hour. Raising their wages will insert about a half a billion extra spending money into Washington's economy. So how much did the Super Bowl raise?