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So the business owners pricing is regulated by the Port of Seattle and their labor costs just increased substantially - and liberals are cheering this on? Wow, talk about crazy. That's a way to put people out of business pretty quickly.
Haters are gonna hate...and hungry travelers are gonna pay to eat at the airport.
SeaTac is a small suburb south of Seattle where Seattle's main airport is found. Yesterday voters approved a ballot measure enacting a $15 per hour minimum wage. Washington state already has the highest minimum wage in the U.S. (9.19/hr).
I listened to an interview of a sandwich shop owner at the airport. He said that his labor costs were going to increase by about $90,000 per year, and he has no idea where that money will come from. He expects that the Port of Seattle, which runs the airport and regulates his pricing, will have to agree to some price hikes. Right now he is required by the Port to charge prices no more than other similar businesses in the region.
I expect that some of the fast food places in SeaTac will just go away. The ones that remain will hire and keep only the most experienced and most productive workers. Teenagers, recent immigrants, people just out of prison, etc. need not apply. In effect they just tore a bunch of rungs off of the bottom of the career ladder in SeaTac, WA.
You have price controls on one end and you just raised min wage on the other end.
Did anyone look at business profits before this to see if business could contain this increase and still operate ?
Or am I being too logical here ?
When was the last time you were in an airport and thought to yourself, "everything here is really cheap."
Apparently liberals are picky about WHO works for higher minimum wage... I also like the "in and near" part as well.... apparently only minimum wage for people associated with the airport, not the entire city...
Got to love liberals...
Says somebody who has obviously never been to the City of Sea-Tac. What part of "The entire city *IS* the Airport" do you not understand? The city was built specifically so that the airport could be built outside of Seattle AND Tacoma (get the name?) so there was a.) Enough land to build the airport in the first place, and b.) so it was far enough out that it would help minimize jet sounds over both cities.
I don't know why the non-residents are upset. This is going to be a great economics lesson for the uneducated.
In fairness, the COL in Seattle is so high that $15/hour is probably like 8-9/hr in other parts of the country.
This is the reason why minimum living wage should be used rather than a standard minimum wage because it would have a direct effect on a local area rather than be a blanket over an entire state or country, which is something the conservatives always seem to be in favor of. Letting the local governments and state governments decide things like this over the federal government.
When was the last time you were in an airport and thought to yourself, "everything here is really cheap."
In my experience for food and beverages the airports tend to be pretty close to local rates - or at least normal retail. I know Port of Portland and Port of SeaTac regulate prices for exactly this reason.
At least in Portland, it seems that the employees inside the airport are actually employed and paid by the Port too. Local businesses pay the Port of Portland a fee to be inside the airport, and provide a significant amount of the franchise's needs. But the Port seems to supply the employees themselves. This leads to several issues - biggest ones being a huge drop in product quality vs. the outside establishments.
This is the reason why minimum living wage should be used rather than a standard minimum wage because it would have a direct effect on a local area rather than be a blanket over an entire state or country, which is something the conservatives always seem to be in favor of. Letting the local governments and state governments decide things like this over the federal government.
That is so local it would have to be controlled by each city.
Now each city is free to enact laws, like this city did, to go above and beyond the national min wage.
But that is what Congress sets for the nation.
Congress cannot set a min "living wage" on a national level because it's impossible to do so.
The airport is the LAST place to spend money. Get your stuff before you go to the airport.
Exactly, which means their profit margins are much higher than a normal restaurant. And they are typically always busy in airports with travelers willing to spend that money.
When was the last time you were in an airport and thought to yourself, "everything here is really cheap."
It was previously noted in the thread that the airport had contractual price controls on the shop owners. I believe that they tack on all kinds of special airport charges\taxes\fees.
The shop owners are either going to need dispensation to increase prices or they will not be able to pass any additional labor charges on to the consumer and will likely go out of business.
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