Seattle passes a living minimum wage

Rym

The city of Seattle has enacted legislation to over the next several years raise the minimum wage to $15/hour.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/06/03/0312232/seattle-approves-15-per-hour-minimum-wage

starting April 1, 2015 in a tiered, gradual manner that depends on employer size. In the first year of implementation, hourly minimum wage will be raised to either $10 or $11 according to the employer size category. By 2021, hourly minimum wage across the board should be at or above $15.

I find it ludicrous that more cities haven't done this. It can't be done at the state level as easily (due to radically different economies in different parts of the various states, nevermind Republican opposition in sub-urban and rural districts), but the major cities have the power, nay, the obligation, to try it.

The economic reality of modern growing US cities is that they need radically different regulatory structures and laws than their surrounding states.

Axel

I do hope more cities adopt this idea. I know lots of people trying to get a city education and being unable to deal with the cost of living without taking on two jobs or something ridiculous. More cities need this so the people trying to live there because they have to can afford it.

Cremlian

However a city in Kansas can no do that since the state passed a law barring minimum wages from being different from the state's minimum wage.

MATATAT

Yeah there have been a lot of protests concerning this recently despite the fact that the mayor had already said that this legislation was going through.

MATATAT

People are also sour on the gentrification of Capitol Hill which.... I'm kinda okay with it being gentrified since I'd rather live around smart wealthier people and not have homeless people wandering around and shitty low class criminals. I understand there are a lot of hippie people that are probably fine to live around who want to live in Capitol Hill but its not my problem that you didn't prepare yourself for a job that makes enough money to live there.

On the other hand I'm being somewhat hypocritical since my girlfriend doesn't currently make enough to live in Capitol Hill but with roommates you can usually get by and since I want to live here I can support both of us alone anyway.

theknoxinator

What I find really interesting about this though is that while some of my liberal/democrat friends are all about this change, most of them don't like it (mainly they don't like that the voters had no say in it).

HMTKSteve

Why is the law not being applied equally across all employers in the impacted area?

Rym

HMTKSteve said:

Why is the law not being applied equally across all employers in the impacted area?

For pragmatic reasons. Most laws/regulations like these have exceptions and phase-in periods based on the sizes of the affected companies.

A Starbucks or a McDonald's can eat the initial costs much more readily than a tiny family business. Give the latter more time to get it together, but force the former to move quickly.

It's all about keeping a balance between healthy regulation and crony regulation (the latter serving only to keep small/new players out of a given industry).

HMTKSteve

How are locally owned franchises treated regarding the national 500+ employee rule? Are they treated based on how many the franchisee employs or how many the overall franchise employs?

Avi

Rym said:

I find it ludicrous that more cities haven't done this. It can't be done at the state level as easily (due to radically different economies in different parts of the various states, nevermind Republican opposition in sub-urban and rural districts), but the major cities have the power, nay, the obligation, to try it.

Rym, as a libertarian in favor of a substantial minimum wage, do you have any issues with say Elizabeth Warren's eleven progressive commandments?
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/21/5918063/elizabeth-warrens-11-commandments-for-progressives-show-democrats

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

I don't think Rym identifies as a libertarian anymore...

HMTKSteve

You mean her socialist agenda? She is more in line with Bernie Sanders than she is with the Democratic party.

I am curious to see what the actual meat behind her college costs commandment is. Does she want to lower costs or subsidize the costs? I am going to guess subsidize simply because that is more in line with socialist thinking.

PS: I am not using socialist as an insult. I simply perceive her ideology as socialist.

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

I wouldn't say she's a socialist, considering how little interest she shows in allowing workers to take control of the means of production.

HMTKSteve

Have you forgotten her famous 'business didn't build this, we built this' speech?

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

Pretty much everything she's proposed so far is pretty solidly liberal, not socialist.

muppet

Calling Elizabeth Warren a Socialist is the comedy highlight of this thread, and from somebody who lived through the entire dramatic shift right of Congress and the Presidency in his adult lifetime, too. Good fucking Christ.

Rym

Avi said:

Rym said:

I find it ludicrous that more cities haven't done this. It can't be done at the state level as easily (due to radically different economies in different parts of the various states, nevermind Republican opposition in sub-urban and rural districts), but the major cities have the power, nay, the obligation, to try it.

Rym, as a libertarian in favor of a substantial minimum wage, do you have any issues with say Elizabeth Warren's eleven progressive commandments?
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/21/5918063/elizabeth-warrens-11-commandments-for-progressives-show-democrats

The "Libertarian" party has been ultra-crazy for at least 15 years now.

Warren is pretty to the right of me, and conservative by comparison.