[Kshama] Sawant won a City Council seat on a promise to boost pay to $15 an hour throughout Seattle. The outspoken socialist is wasting no time getting started.
"This cannot happen over a decade or so," Sawant said. "This has to happen as soon as possible."
Sawant and her supporters point to a wage boost for airport workers that passed in SeaTac as motivation for Seattle to do the same.
"People say that low-wage workers, fast food workers here in Seattle, can't earn a living wage of $15 an hour, but they are wrong because momentum is on our side," said Sterling Harders, a member of SEIU Local 775.
We note the lack of plans on the part of those advocating the higher minimum wage to start businesses of their own in which THEIR money could be risked.
Many local business owners worry a $15 mandate could push employers to trim staff or pass costs on to customers.
"I think some jobs will be lost in the process," Sheehan, the florist, said. "I think the other part of it is prices will climb a little bit to compensate for that."
A florist who knows that by any other name, it's the elasticity of demand that matters!
But, good politics is not letting a controversy go to waste;
The council has earmarked $100,000 to study the overall impacts of boosting the minimum wage. Mayor-elect Ed Murray is working on his own plans to address what he terms "wage inequities."Iow, ignore the actual, flesh and blood businessmen paying taxes in the city, bring in the experts.
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