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2

I am proposing that the salaries of IT workers be doubled and tripled.

Do you think they'd elect me in Redmond?

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@3

Maybe they can just stop recording you here.
5
And when Shama-lama-ding-dong's 60% wage jump for burger flippers and their ilk hit pay checks and they all run out, flush with cash, to look for a place to rent, what's Shama-lama-ding-dong going to do about run-away rents and inflation? Price controls à la Venezuela?
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DC just increased their minimum wage today, and stole Eddie Johnson
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2014 is supposed to be the year Seattle gets gigabit internet service ... which if it doesnt pan out, I supposed the people can rise up and simply take the dark fiber and build it themselves!

Filtered Packets for the People!
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Best.
Councilperson.
Ever.
And a hearty cheer for Seattle's most excellent Reverend Lang.
9
$15.00 an hour is a winning proposition. From Digby's Hullabaloo:

McConnell in some trouble, Kentuckyians strongly support minimum wage increase

by David Atkins

Don't look now, but per Public Policy Polling's latest poll Mitch McConnell is in a dead heat with Democratic challenger Alison Grimes. In Kentucky.

It's also interesting to note that while the polling sample voted for Romney over Obama by 16 points, they support raising the minimum wage to $10/hour by a whopping 21 points. Like much of the rest of progressive populism, the minimum wage is a killer argument that Democrats should be using from now through November. Watching Stuart Varney go into conniption fits for an entire year would be delicious, and great campaign fodder.

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Just say it at every presser at the end, before Goodbye:

"$15 an hour minimum wage"

And whenever they ask a stupid question.
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As much as it pained me to do so, I voted for Richard Conlin this last election. It took an especially bad challenger to turn me into a Conlin voter, but somehow Kshama Sawant pulled that off. Seattle Transit Blog pretty well reflected my views at the time:
http://seattletransitblog.com/2013/10/22…
http://seattletransitblog.com/2013/10/24…

Now, with that big disclaimer out of the way, I can only applaud Sawant for making the $15/hour minimum wage her cause celebre. It's easy to make the case that the collective economic benefits of a higher in-city minimum wage outweigh the risks/downsides--that this proposal should make the Seattle economy stronger, not weaker.

Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know what the economics literature has to say about the potential effects; I'm guessing the research would indicate it's a win-win. I'm reminded of how the taxpayers have to subsidize the incomes of Walmart employees, and thus indirectly subsidize Walmart and its business model. (OK, there are no Walmarts within our city limits, thank goodness, but you get the idea.)

P.S. Anyone happen to know what, if any, corresponding increase there is for tipped workers?
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@11: There is no exemption from the minimum wage for Washingtonian workers who receive tips, so their minimum wage would be $15/hour.
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@11 - in Sawant's proposal, as much as we know of it at least - it's short on any details - every job goes to a $15 minimum immediately. No distinction between tipped and untipped workers.

@6 - yes, DC did pass a minimum wage proposal. It gets to $11.50 by 2016, then increases based on the CPI, like our Stat's minimum wage does. DC's minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.77. Seattle's could not be lower than the State minimum of $9.32. Every restaurant in Seattle would trade such a lower tip credit for a higher minimum for the rest of workers.
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Fortunately, it sounds like Sawant realizes she can't just pass $15 now. She will work with the politicians who oppose that - the rest of the council, and the mayor who are all against $15 for everyone now. The anti-NBA Arena, anti-urbanist Sawant will also find she will start to be opposed by these politicians and the Capitol Hill voters on other issues as she puts out the details of her agenda.
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@14 there's no distinction between tipped and not tipped workers for min wage currently in Seattle.

Good on her, I hope this gets passed.
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#14

$15/hr will be fine for the exurbs. Hourly workers will flock to Seattle, take the pay and ride home on cheap LINK trains.

A couple with 2 minimum wages can rent you a spacious 3 bedroom in any place normal in Puget Sound (aka not Seattle).
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The minimum wage was meant to rid society of the undesirables. Not much has changed. Here is the source and see page 212 http://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/paper…
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The reason Sawant wants this to happen so quickly is because the more discussion there is, the more people hear the facts, and the more people hear Sawant talk, the more they realize neither Sawant nor this idea have any credibility.
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Tipped workers will indeed make whatever minimum is mandated by law. However, restaurants usually pitch their wage scales to pay non-tipped workers a higher hourly so there isn't such a discrepancy between front-of-house workers and back-of-house workers.
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@13 Here in Australia the minimum wage is $15 p/h and there's no distinction between tipped, non-tipped. Some waiters can be paid $20 p/h easily.
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@20 - you're right. And the US cost of living is about 30% lower. http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/com…

And while servers can be paid $20 per hour in Australia, in Seattle, at a full serve restaurant, they seen to average $20 - $30 (good ones even more) in tips PLUS the $9.32 minimum wage, and make as much as $65 an hour in tips at high end restaurants like the Space Needle.

So good on the plan to get rid of tips, it will dramatically LOWER what servers make in Seattle. Someone should ask the servers what they want.
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Sawant's election victory is no mandate for anything. All it means is that voters preferred her by a small margin over Richard Conlin. The sooner she comes to understand this, the better for all of us.

As it is stands now, Sawant is showing early signs of "my way or the highway," the same strain of hubris that was the root of McGinn's failing in office.
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@21/22: She got more votes than the guy opposed to $15/hr. The mayor came out for $15/hour... This is going to happen, whether you guys like it or not.
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@23, yes, it will probably happen, but on whose terms? Sawant is displaying the same petulant insistence on having it her way, and no one else's, that plagued McGinn. Remains to be seen if she will be any more successful than McGinn was.
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@24 - read again what Murray ran on - $15 minimum for government, and for large retailers and fast food chains, "someday". That day could be in 10 years from now. Murray also spoke about protecting small business. And more people voted for Murray than Sawant.
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Overheard today "If Sawant passes her $15 minimum wage, every restaurant and espresso stand in Seattle will close."

Sigh....

On the upside, the same guy said that he was going to leave Seattle soon.
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People who see Sawant's determination to push ahea with the $15/hr this year as "uncompromising" are missing the point. The big majority have been compromising away their right to a decent standard of living to the 1% for way too long.
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To call Sawant "uncompromising" about her pushing ahead with $15/hr this year is missing the point. The vast majority of us have been compromising away our right to a decent standard of living to the 1% for too long.
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@28 - the vast majority? You mean the tiny fraction of the workforce that makes minimum wage? Seriously, this community college level radicalism is just too funny sometimes.
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I was thinking about college, maybe I can wait a bit and get a free ride.
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It would increase the influx of unskilled workers to the REGION by many times the already high rate. Some of these proponents are assuming that it's good for everybody because why? Big box chains don't need to worry that the 10 cents they make on a burger will decrease by 20%? And small business owner who nets 10% of gross and walks with $40k should earn less than their hires? In a perfect world your dishwasher would not be eating, drinking, or playing with his phone half the time that you're not staring directly at him. One would need to fire him and make the other guy work twice as hard.
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Right on! They complain about food stamps and that people are poor because they don't want/but when one doesn't have the same opportunity like others and work to support their love ones they complain. $15 is sufficient and I know because my mother had 8 children and I am the oldest and had to help her with them. I graduated from college but couldnot find a job in my field and to work to pay off the grant. I am a housekeeper in Louisiana and works two jobs just to survive so I am proud of the residents their. The rich gets richer and don't have to struggle like us and pay less taxes. I owe every year.There is POWER! IT TAKES COURAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!UNDERSTANDING! WALK IN MY SHOE!!

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