Seattle agrees to raise minimum wage to $15

[714562]

Video: Seattle restaurants torn over minimum wage hike | Watch PBS NewsHour Online | PBS Video"

That "D.ick's" place is absolutely fukking insane. A fukking BURGER JOINT giving full medical, full dental, a 401k with a 50% match, and a fukking college scholarship?

No wonder that bytch kept working there after she got her bachelors. If I got all that slinging burgers, I'd never want to do anything else.

 

[Type Username Here]

Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would dry in the fields. Rice would cease being profitable.

Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos. This would lead to uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy. They pointed to the mob's "rule of terror" during the French Revolution and argued for the continuation of the status quo, which was providing for affluence and stability for the slaveholding class and for all free people who enjoyed the bounty of the slave society.

Defenders of slavery argued that by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for. They said that their owners would protect and assist them when they were sick and aged, unlike those who, once fired from their work, were left to fend helplessly for themselves.

JAMES THORNWELL, a minister, wrote in 1860, "The parties in this conflict are not merely Abolitionists and slaveholders, they are Atheists, Socialists, Communists, Red Republicans, Jacobins on the one side and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other."

The bold sound familiar?

The Southern Argument for Slavery [ushistory.org]

 

[No1]

@Napoleon you're making bad arguments bro. You're asking questions for the sake of asking questions. You're letting them get off with just citing history that will not necessarily determine what will happen in regards to minimum wage while also pointing out how other progressive measures benefit society (which still does not explain how in 2014 what the impact of a 15 dollar minimum wage would be). You're allowing what should be a specific argument to become a historical referendum. I may be a progressive, but I like a good debate and you guys aren't pushing the left wing of people on here at all. With that in mind, let's stay on topic. The topic is Seattle and what this will do. Let's try to stay on that on that for once. Here is what we do know...

The full council still has to consider Murray’s proposal, but should it pass, Seattle might not just have a far higher minimum wage than its surrounding suburbs, where businesses can easily move; it might well have the highest minimum wage in the world.

The economic literature is unclear, and this has no U.S. precedent.

The truth is, nobody has any idea what would happen if the minimum wage jumped that high. But there are good reasons to worry that results would be ugly.

The research literature on whether minimum wage increases kill jobs is decidedly mixed. Some economists have found that hikes lead to small job losses among teens and in industries like fast food. Others have found that losses are nonexistent, or at least negligible. In the end, I tend to argue that even if you assume reasonable job losses, middle-class and poor families come out ahead in the bargain. Though some workers end up unemployed, enough get raises to make the tradeoff worthwhile.

But that assumes we don’t lift the pay floor too high, too fast. Minimum wage studies have typically looked at small increases, somewhere around 50 cents or a dollar. Seattle’s proposal would be far larger. It would also have virtually no U.S. precedent. (Nearby neighbor SeaTac recently upped its own minimum to $15, but the city is little more than an airport and only 1,600 workers are affected.)

It also has little global precedent.

Seattle’s plan has little global precedent, either. As Tim Fernholz at Quartz notes, the city is essentially considering adopting the highest minimum wage on the globe. That may come as a surprise, if you’ve ever read about Australia’s roughly $15 minimum. But once you adjust for purchasing power, the wage floor down under, as well as in high-pay countries like Belgium and France, is closer to $10, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. If the Swiss vote to raise their minimum to $25, as they are considering, Bloomberg reports it would be worth just $14 on a purchasing power basis.

The risk is high.

Any plan that makes hiring a worker more expensive than in France should be cause for concern. We know that businesses in high-wage countries are especially eager to replace workers with software. Fast-food restaurants in Europe, for instance, have been some of the earliest adopters of labor saving technologies like digital kiosks where customers can order. Those innovations are already beginning to make headway in the United States. But by passing a $15 minimum, Seattle would risk speeding the process up within its city limits.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Arindrajit Dube, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst economist who is perhaps the foremost advocate for the idea that minimum wage increases don’t kill jobs. “Would I be concerned about possible job losses if there were a $15 minimum wage in the restaurant industry, yes, I’d be concerned,” he told the New York Times in December. “There are concerns that it might lead to the substitution of automation for workers.”

The move is especially risky for a single city, where businesses can easily choose to open or relocate in the suburbs. That fear convinced Washington, D.C. to coordinate its own recent minimum wage increase with some of its surrounding counties. Seattle isn’t taking any such precaution. (Again, SeaTac is barely a city.)

The process will be gradual, so relax. We won't know for another three years or more. But it will effect 25% of Seattle's workforce.

To his credit, Murray’s is trying to implement the idea gradually. Under his proposal, businesses would have between three and seven years to phase in the new minimum, depending on their size and whether employees get health care coverage or tips. Through 2024, some businesses will also be able to count $3 worth of tips or benefits toward the $15 total. By introducing the change over time, the city will give businesses leeway to adjust, if they can.

If they can’t, however, the impact could be vast. Researchers at the University of Washington have estimated that 102,000 workers in Seattle make $15 or less, meaning they would be directly affected by the hike. Murray is running his experiment with a quarter of his city’s workforce.

And yet, for all the red flags, I’m oddly glad he’s giving it a try. If the plan passes, it will be fascinating, and instructive, to see how such a hike plays out in a major American city. If it succeeds, it could mean a profound shift in how we think about worker pay. If not, Seattle will have taken out the idea for a test drive. Better that one city’s job market crash than a whole country’s.

Seattle might raise its minimum wage to $15. This is not a good idea.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

@Napoleon you're making bad arguments bro. You're asking questions for the sake of asking questions. You're letting them get off with just citing history than will not necessarily determine what will happen in regards to minimum wage while also pointing out how other progressive measures benefit society (which still does not explain how in 2014 what the impact of a 15 dollar minimum wage would be). You're allowing what should be a specific argument to become a historical referendum. I may be a progressive, but I like a good debate and you guys aren't pushing the left wing of people on here at all. With that in mind, let's stay on topic. The topic is Seattle and what this will do. Let's try to stay on that on that for once. Here is what we do know...



The economic literature is unclear, and this has no U.S. precedent.


It also has little global precedent.


The risk is high.



The process will be gradual, so relax. We won't know for another three years or more. But it will effect 25% of Seattle's workforce.


Seattle might raise its minimum wage to $15. This is not a good idea.

You said the same thing i did: I don't know.

However, i currently am not sure that $15 is a good move.

 

[lakinta]

love the "but businesses will hire less workers" arguments.

if our economic system is set up in such a way that we have to be afraid every time the min. wage goes up (or workers' gain some concession), then it seems to me that economic system aint all that great and is actually fairly coercive.

"don't raise the min. wage or we'll run away." the logic of business sounds like the logic of a spoiled brat.

 

[88m3]

Some of you would have probably supported putting children in coal mines like the free-market™ decided:

;


their eyes tell a story... look them in the eyes

 

[Type Username Here]

;


their eyes tell a story... look them in the eyes

Lewis Hine shot a lot of pictures depicting child labor in the 1910s

The History Place - Child Labor in America: Investigative Photos of Lewis Hine

 

[88m3]

Lewis Hine shot a lot of pictures depicting child labor in the 1910s

The History Place - Child Labor in America: Investigative Photos of Lewis Hine

Grim

That really wasn't long ago.

 

[Type Username Here]

Grim

That really wasn't long ago.

It really is. If you read about the early 1900s, you can definitely understand why there was a massive push towards Socialism. There was even a Socialist Presidential Candidate (got up to 6% of the popular vote). Of course he was thrown in prison for giving a speech found to be unpatriotic. Charged with 10 counts of sedition and given 10 years in prison for giving a speech. His appeal went all the way to the Supreme Court where they agreed with the lower courts.

Freedom of Speech *

*(Except if socialist, communist, anti-war, black or native american. Corporations may apply)

The US was really paranoid about socialism. They had death squads patrolling looking to kill or arrest socialists, anarchists and communists.

First Red Scare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The government even supplied troops to fight the Red Army and the Bolsheviks which a lot of people don't know about.

White movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[GetInTheTruck]

:foh:

How did you come this conclusion?

U know what I'm gonna take back that statement I admit when I said it I was thinking about my immediate vicinity.

I still think 15 an hour is absurd.

 

[DEAD7]

Are you dense my friend? That's the entire point of the cartoon: to show how relatively less extreme labor laws are met with the same resistance and arguments as freeing human beings from slavery, abolishing children working, and so on.

You had people saying that preventing children from working would cripple businesses and damage the economy and you guys are in here saying the same shyt because the minimum wage went up to $15.


Some of you would have probably supported putting children in coal mines like the free-market™ decided:

The moment the labor becomes forced or coerced its no longer the "free market".

 

[tmonster]

So a high school dropout will be making $15 in Seattle meanwhile a recent college grad will be making less than half of $15 elsewhere in the other 49 states of Cacmerica

yeah, because if the Seattleite made less that would make the guys in the other 49 states eat and feel better

 

[tmonster]

The moment the labor becomes forced or coerced its no longer the "free market".

wow...you're like MLK

 

[Goat poster]

I hate to do this...but...

You know why CEOs get paid so much right?

Thats a HIGH risk job mind you.

And this isn't a popsicle stand. We're talking one of the largest companies in the world. That counts for something.

I don't wade into how company execs spend their money unless we're talking about lower level people.

CEOs are THE frontline of these massive companies and when they do bad, they suffer...but if they do well, they're rewarded.

20 plus million dollar severance packages for running a company into the ground is suffering?

The 1% got you people so brainwashed it's not even funny

They sit back like While working class people attack other working class people and defend the 1%'s greed just to feel better than other people.

 

[DEAD7]

Could someone explain the relationship between CEO pay and low skill worker pay? and exactly how one affects the other?