Is it true that all people working must be paid $15 hour minimum? (Seattle: 2013, find a job)

[bobisinthehouse]

I read some articles about the 15 dollars an hour, but is that just for government employees? or does that include anyone working in the city of Seattle?

[Hemlock140]

Currently only city employees (99% already made more than that), and employees not at the airport in the city of Seatac. For non-city employees the recently passed $15/hour law is over 7 years with many tricky regulations on who it applies to and when.


$15 Minimum Wage

[amaiunmei]

The TL;DR version:

Seattle: the $15/hr wage will be phased in over a period of 3 to 7 years, depending on the size of the company (i.e., number of employees and number of operating locations).

Seatac: a $15/hr wage was voted in and is effective currently. However, through legal challenge, the airport was determined to be not under the aegis of their $15/hr law due to the fact that it is a part of the Port of Seattle. The airport decided to phase in a $13/hr wage for all of their employees (no doubt influenced by being surrounded by competition paying more money).

[bobisinthehouse]

wow it is gonna be expensive to live and shop in Seattle.

[RogueMom]

Originally Posted by bobisinthehouse

wow it is gonna be expensive to live and shop in Seattle.

Yeah, they need to stop all wage increases for everyone so the price of things won't go up.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by bobisinthehouse

wow it is gonna be expensive to live and shop in Seattle.

It already was. The new minimum wage won't make it that much worse for those with good jobs here. For those making minimum wage that increase will not come close to helping them afford to live here. It will help some that are taking the bus in from less expensive cities, if they don't get laid off so th employers can hire better people since they have to pay them so much.

[wutitiz]

The phase in does not make sense to me. If it's a good idea, why not do it now? IMO this was designed to delay the damage until Mayor Murray is out of office. The $15 minimum wage does not fully kick in until 2021.

[victorianpunk]

Originally Posted by wutitiz

The phase in does not make sense to me. If it's a good idea, why not do it now? IMO this was designed to delay the damage until Mayor Murray is out of office. The $15 minimum wage does not fully kick in until 2021.

It goes up quicker for my job, and I doubt it will still be around in a few years. This 15/hour garbage is one of the big reasons why I've decided to leave Seattle. Any other city, aside from maybe San Fran and Berkley, would just roll their eyes at the sight of white, upper class hipsters marching and demanding an absurd minimum wage while texting "capitalism sucks" from their Iphones. But in Seattle? The local politicians roll over and play dead and give the dumb hippies what they want.

I'm heading to Charlotte: southern food, southern belles (who shave their legs, unlike the "nature women" we have out here) and moderate, sensible politics.

That, and this bonus: http://clclt.com/theclog/archives/20...ies-in-america

They are the thing that turned me against Seattle. If I see one more "socialist" rich white hipster with a stupid beard and thick rim glasses using his parents trust fund to buy "smash capitalism" t-shirts, I think I'll puke. I left the East Coast because of the guidos, and now I'll leave Seattle because of the hipsters.

But at least guidos don't force their politics down your throat like hipsters do, I give them that.

[RVD90277]

I think the logic is that for smaller companies, it takes time to plan for these things (raise prices, move schedules around, change business hours if early morning / late night is no longer profitable, etc.). for larger companies, it is easier to absorb.

I am not so sure that I buy this logic though and I think that the minimum wage hike might encourage illegal behavior.

Imagine if I am the owner of a dry cleaner and I employ a person to help me out so I pay this person $9/hr. With this increase I basically say "Sorry, I can't afford to raise prices on everyone so I'm going to have to cut your hours as well as cut the hours of the store so we will open from 7am-10am and then open from 4pm-7pm Mon-Fri and that's it." "But boss, I'd rather work for $9/hr for 40 hours/wk than $15/hr for 20 hours/wk so can't you just say that you're paying me $15/hr and I'll fill out my timesheets so that you're still paying me $9/hr in effective wages?" "Hmm...that's illegal."

RVD.

[Hemlock140]

I doubt that many employers would take the risk of such illegal and fraudulent bookkeeping, because it opens the door to an IRS audit ($15/hour=more tax revenue), and gives the employees blackmail bait.

The first premise is what would happen, cutting hours and people working harder until they get fed up and quit to find a job in another city without the same minimum wages.