The $15-hr lie

[Alki Warrior]

I’m a bit confused. Wasn’t his wage fight supposed to be for fast food workers initially or did I miss the fine print or even worse lied to by Sawant? I just saw on the news how pre-school teachers are or aides are now wanting in on it. How did it snowball from fast food workers to everything else now? This whole thing is a scam.

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[angelescrest]

And you don’t think pre-school teachers or aides are deserving of $15 an hour? Got kids?

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[Emmy Bell]

Everyone deserves a living wage otherwise it’s just modern slavery. $15 isn’t enough for Seattle but it’s a start especially for people we trust with our kids.

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[elikapeka]

If you thought it was just a wage increase for fast food workers then you missed the big obvious print. It’s an increase in minimum wage. Period.

No confusion or lying or obfuscation about it.

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[seaopgal]

No lies, no scams. The intention has always been to have a $15 minimum wage for all jobs in Seattle, although there have been proposals and discussion about a lower training wage (6 months) and/or student wage.

(Sorry for the redundancy, eli … posting at the same time.)

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[Militant Moderate]

Folks, what you need to understand is that role models can be both positive and negative. And by underpaying those who educate, inspire, and spend significant time with our children, we’re telling our kids, ‘Don’t grow up to do this!’ Educators are not to be emulated, with their entry-level cars, sales rack attire, and careers dedicated to helping kids become intelligent, thoughtful adults.

As parents, we should want our children to grow up and to pursue worthwhile endeavors.

Like becoming a Kardashian.

I’m with the OP. I say we end this scam and pay educators with apples. It’s traditional and nutritious.

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[Alki Warrior]

Sawant started the campaign off with fast food workers Mcydees and Wendy’s employees. Then SeaTac became a focal point. Now its snowballed. Let’s look at it this way, the $15-hr will be the new low wage line if it passes. There will be immediate inflation, and if you think its expensive now, wait until those business’ have to raise their costs by forty five percent and pass it to the consumer. If you aren’t getting a raise at you job or social security check isn’t giving you more, its going to be worse for you and me. I’m not getting a raise and will be poorer. Frankly, I don’t even go and eat out that maybe twice a month now because its not worth the value anymore. Wake up and read between the lines. This was supposed to be about attacking big business’ only, but the smaller one’s here who employ less than twenty five may not be around much longer or they’ll have to let workers go or dwindle their hours down. Is that what you want all those cute little Junction stores closing because of the wage hike?

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[JoB]

AlkiWarrior..

a 45% raise in consumer prices due to a raise in the minimum wage?

isn’t that just a bit alarmist?

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[waynster]

I would be very couscous on this something that was design to go after the big corporations and not the mom and pop shops. Some small business might be able to do this not all can…..here is what she is saying now and the new poll..

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2014/04/18/mayors-minimum-wage-panel-is-deadlocked-sawant/#21

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2014/04/18/new-poll-sharp-drop-in-support-for-15-an-hour-minimum

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[Alki Warrior]

Have you ever ran a small business JoB?

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[waynster]

The next big thing Seattle will have to tackle will be rent control. So with rents going though the roof and increases that even $15 hour won’t cover then what… its a battle that seattle can’t win overnight….

http://seattletimes.com/html/editorials/2023409503_editminimumwagexml.html

http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2023409463_jakerosenfeldopedunions20xml.html

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[JanS]

yeah, JoB, have you ever run a small business? Inquiring minds want to know… :)

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[JoB]

Ali Warrior..

why yes, i have run a small business..

and a much larger one too.

i am, in fact, familiar with the issues.

businesses that pay their employees the least they can get away with thinking they are maximizing their profits are so busy pinching pennies that they are losing dollars… especially companies that count on their employees to interact with the public.

in the first place.. better paid employees are happier employees which translates to better service for customers. better service for customers translates to more repeat business and to increased profits.

in the second place, the turnover in better paid employees is much slower than that of poorly paid employees and therefore employee turnover costs are smaller.

in the third place.. better paid employees can afford to be customers.. and whether they are your customers or another local business’s customers.. the increase in local income translates directly into increased discretionary income for your product or service.

far from putting local businesses out of business, an increase in the minimum wage translates to an increase in the prosperity of local business.

look it up. the data will amaze you.

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[Alki Warrior]

This is what I see happening. A $15-hr now wage would..

1) Put some people out of work

2) Put some people out of business

3) Not do much to solve the high cost of housing

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[trim]

+1 to what JoB said, an increase in minimum wage I can’t imagine would hurt businesses much, for sure not a 45% increase in the prices of w/e. If you calculate it, business will be only be giving people an extra 10-20$ a day. I spend much more than that at the store. Not to mention, all the stores mostly have products picked/farmed from out of state and transported here, so there’s no cost increase because it would be just a state minimum wage increase. I think it’s a good idea to the increase of normal living, i.e. rent costs. People should be making more, along with the people who go to school for 4+ years, they should be making more than $17 an hour

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[Alki Warrior]

What if you are only on Social Security like millions are? Do they get a 61% increase like the fifteen nowers do so they can afford the increases in consumer cost that will hit them?

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[hammerhead]

Yes it will put me out of business or I stop growing my business or increase my hourly rates. I can not hire as a entry level employee vacuuming at 15.00 nor will I. Any job requires training and increase as one learns the job.

The amount of L & I, insurance, bonding, federal and unemployment and all the other taxes are killing me.

The more I pay an employee the more taxes I have to pay. Worse yet I DO NOT get unemployment. I know of other small businesses that will suffer greatly.

So I can say sadly even 15.00 is not a living wage for around here. It will NOT solve anything.

SO for MY business an increase will hurt my business for this is MY fact.

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[gmabetty]

I’m on SS retirement. Our latest increase Little over 1%. I live in subsidized housing and our rent goes up too. Have never had a ridiculous 61%. A few years ago it was 3 1/2 and another like 2%. Also Medicare costs very with amount of income.

I’ve met so many people with families having to work 2 jobs on minimum wage to support their families but at $15 an hour will most likely get less hours. I worked full time for $1.85 an hour/no benefits, in late 80’s to help husbands full time higher pay and rented a nice older 4 bdrm. house for $75. As a single mom in ’80’s I made $6.05 an hr + benefits and rented 2 bdrm. apartment for $245 per mo. I know about inflation. Also none was in or near Seattle.

Also at one time in 80′ we had a increase in the minimum wage where I worked and everyone earning less than that got sudden increase of about .25 to put us new scale. Other employees already making that much were really upset because they’d been working longer to get it by raises. I was happy but of course they weren’t. There will be a chain reaction over this $15.

I agree Seattle definitely needs a freeze on rents.

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[JanS]

there will always be a chain reaction. Someone will always feel that they are not being treated fairly. When they complain, I wish they had answers on how to fix it, except for “let’s leave it as is”. That’s not an answer. A good quote I saw today “Complaining about a problem without proposing a solution is called whining !”

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[HMC Rich]

Wait a minute. What is or does local government doing to help businesses? What will they do to for businesses in case for some reason there is this jump in minimum wages?

I don’t know the answers. What I think will happen is that if workers get $15.00 per hour and the ACA goes fully into effect, I think a lot of people may be reduced in hours or let go. I see stores that are open 24 hours trimming their hours. And then there are those unforeseen consequences.

Who knows?

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[JoB]

I think i think i think..

i think we have heard this before when Washington raised it’s minimum wage

and the sky didn’t fall.

i told you the facts of the matter would surprise you.. so it’s no surprise that you didn’t look them up.

so here’s a teaser..from our own Seattle Times

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023116005_wageimpactsxml.html

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[singularname]

Are you new?

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[dobro]

Didn’t we have a lengthy discussion on this recently?

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[amalia]

Some people love to blame everything on their own personal scapegoat. Health insurance went up? ObamaCare! (Nevermind that insurance companies raise rates 7-20% every year.) Workers need to be able to support themselves. Cost of living goes up, and so must wages; those people benefiting off of cheap labor will have to adjust. I wonder how many of these people also complain about taxes going up. It’s called “economic growth.” I bet you support THAT. Maybe you even blame your scapegoat when you feel the economy isn’t growing!

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