Greece isn't in northern europe, fuck mook.

also, this arguing is subjective and pointless. The largest voting political cohort is behind this effort. It doesn't matter whether it makes economic sense, because enough people want it to happen. Expecting a political cohort to give a shit about any agenda besides its own, well, I wish you really good luck with that. Enjoy.

@104) So what?

Even if inflation negates the benefits of a wage increase, we've still effectively narrowed the income gap between the highest paid and the least paid, if only a tiny bit.

That's still a good thing.

I couldn't agree more than $2.13 (federal tipped minimum wage) or $2.77 (tipped minimum wage here) is a slap in the face of hard-working tipped employees. I also couldn't agree more that 2/3+ of an employee's income shouldn't depend on the generosity of those they serve. But having a *slightly* lower minimum wage for tipped employees with the restriction that if they don't pull full minimum wage (in actuality, not based on estimates from sales) the shop must make it up seems reasonable. When you have a robust minimum wage, it's even more reasonable.

When I waited tables, federal minimum wage was $5.15/hour and that's what I got if my tips came in short. They did from time-to-time since I was waiting tables at a resort where some people assumed their tips were included (they weren't). But my base wage was at least almost half of the minimum wage. Now we've raised the federal minimum wage and many states and localities have gone beyond that and...servers still get less than $3/hour in base wages, their base wage hasn't budged at the federal and most state levels. That's unfair, but less than full minimum wage is not. Half seems fair.

While we're at it, can we stop the practice of "tipping out" everyone under the sun? At my restaurant, we didn't have busboys or hostesses (the servers did it), and, yes, the dishwashers did make minimum wage flat, but I was tipping out cooks whose base wage was twice what mine was. Trust me, if a cook went above and beyond to make my customers happy, or a dishwasher spotted me with help getting dishes to the line or getting me something I needed (a ramekin when we were busy and they all seemed to be dirty, the right pint glass when I couldn't find them), I'd gladly slip them a few dollars of the tip or buy them a beer after hours, but having to give up 2% of my *sales* (not tips...more like 10-20% of my tips depending on how generous my customers were) to people who were making FAR more than my base wage was a serious rub.

Alternatively, I'd happily pay servers a full, fair minimum wage baked into the price of my meal, and even then give them a TRUE gratuity if they deserved it. I'm not a cheap-o, and DC's other laws are helpful to servers (that old "double the tax" rule? Yeah, our tax on prepared food is 10%, so if you follow that rule you're tipping well here), but it does seem unfair to have to grovel for such a large portion of your wages. Far fairer to set a blanket minimum wage and set it well. Was it here I saw the comment from someone who gave their housekeeper in a hotel a $20 and you would have thought they'd saved them from a blazing inferno? No one deserves to live like that, whether housekeeper, server, or anyone else.

@99 So...what is your solution to get money fairly from Chains without including small businesses?

The minimum wage should be $1,997. 42 per hour. Let's do it!

@108

wow, you sure scored some kind of intellectual point there by ironically not making any fucking sense. Double points for referring to an economic situation that was already boring like three years ago.

I went to a Tom Douglas restaurant today and it was delicious. Loved it. The people who work at amazon will be willing to shell out a little extra for it. On the other hand, maybe they dont have to. When I went, it wasnt full. Maybe it is full most of the time. But on the chance it isnt, maybe he could make up that cost increase by an increase in volume. If I had more money, I would go out more. Maybe he could make up the difference by a 10-15% increase in volume. Right now everyone on min wage cant eat there, like ever. With a raise, maybe they could eat there twice a month. But its still a lot more people in your customer base.

@23, you say @9 doesn't know how business works. @9 knows how life works, which is something you apparently don't.

No One Owes You a McRestaurant

“When a restaurant/hospitality worker complains about not making a living, they are often told things like “no one is forcing you to work in a restaurant” or “it is your choice where you work” or “you just need to improve your working skills to make your work product more valuable and businesses will pay you more” or sometimes even “no one owes you a living.”

You see and hear comments like that all the time.

Why doesn’t that apply to business? Aren’t you choosing to run a restaurant? If the margins are so low in food, why don’t you open a bank or a gold mine? It’s your choice you know. Or maybe if you just brush up on your entrepreneurial skills you can think of a better business to invest your capital in. How about “no one owes you a restaurant?”

I am not trying to be harsh, but I am applying the same logic and the same free market analysis to you as a business owner that is often applied to the working poor”

Copied from @ 115 -

"I don't think this discussion has anything to do with "how small businesses work," though. Either everyone is entitled to a living wage and you pay that and do the rest yourself, or you have to admit that you think some people deserve to work full time and still be on the verge of starving. A dishwasher is a human and deserves to be paid like one. If you disagree, why run a restaurant? No one forced you to open a business, and you're not entitled to exploit other humans so you don't have to be someone else's minimum wage employee."

Hear, hear!

As a long time server and bartender and cook and everything else you can do where you get tips; I can't help but disagree with those that don't encourage the tip to count for the minimum! That's why we do this. Tips. We make way better money than $15 If we are good at our jobs. And if you don't make that as a server than there is a natural incentive to learn that skill until you do. It is a skill that, for those of you who haven't attempted it, is comparable to nursing or massage. You have to pay attention to your customer's needs and how they are reacting psychologically, physically, and emotionally.

Without tips, or without the incentive of tips, the skill is dis-incentivised and the job will be what it is in other non-tipped service positions which is to say not a craft or skill. Why else is your favorite service pro so good? We love to be care takers for your experience and we are in positions that earn upwards to $40+ per hour because we have that ambition and talent. No one that I know of (in the restaurant industry, everybody knows everybody else in it in Seattle) thinks that we won't be taking a huge pay cut if we are penalized in this way. Last time I checked we weren't in gulogs! Also, what happens when my manager takes a pay cut because he already makes $15 and now his post shift drink costs a dollar more? Maybe $15/ hr should only apply to grad students who work at daycare. Leave the restaurant industry alone, we are fine. Or is the goal to fuck the middle class because some of you were fired as bussers?

...not an entirely fair comparison, but....

We were just in Sydney, Australia for two weeks, where tipping is largely absent for restaurant staff and cabbies, because the minimum wage is $16.37 AUD per hour. The cost of living in Sydney is high - reminded me of SF or NYC - but there was absolutely no shortage of restaurants and pubs.

I think a salient point here is that if we do this, maybe we lose X% of existing restaurants - but maybe they get replaced with better performing establishment. There was no shortage of small pubs and indie bistros in Sydney who seemed to have figured out how to stay in business.

Interesting look at Australian wage law, including pay for youth and apprentices: http://mywage.org.au/main/salary/minimum….

@119 Well. Australia has universal healthcare. So employers are not responsible for that. But taxes are way higher. And as a result there are not nearly as many new pubs, restaurants opening etc per capita as there as there are here.

Remember Sydney WAY more expensive to live than Seattle. And it's a big problem there. GST (like a VAT in Europe) is around 8-15%. These kinds of comparisons are not that helpful really.

You would need around 7,057.41A$ (6,373.53$) in Sydney to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 4,800.00$ in Seattle, WA (assuming you rent in both cities). (This calculation uses our Consumer Prices Including Rent Index.)

While I LIKE the European ( I spend a great deal of time there) and Australian system — the fact they pay livable wages — they also have taken a great deal of time to acclimate to those circumstances and have a social welfare net for everybody. We don't.

Again, almost no small business is against the $15 dollar hour wage increase. That is a total straw man. All they want is a phase in and for the individual circumstances of each kind of small business to be taken into account. That's it. This is not the least bit controversial.

What these delusional fanatics are dong is lumping everybody together with huge corporate chains. And that's pretty fucked up and short sighted.

Mr. Douglas states that he would love to see his cooks "be able to buy a house....and raise kids". You can buy a home and raise kids in Seattle on $15 an hour? Is Mr. Douglas medicating before his interviews?

http://billmoyers.com/2014/03/12/wall-st… this article makes anyone's argument against raising the minimum wage invalid.

@22 "the value of a dishwasher isn't $15 an hour".

i'm guessing you've never been a sous chef or bar manager who has had his dishwasher call out sick on a friday or saturday night. i say pay em $20 an hour.

All the more reason we need a single payer or public option system to save people and businesses money.
I hope Tom Douglas supports either system.

Currently Washington State is one of the only states to have the same minimum wage for tipped employees and non tipped employees.
We also have the highest minimum wage at the State Level .

The ideal solution if minimum wage is 15 dollars an hour is for tipped workers to be paid say 11 dollars an hour and then *digest* the Data and adjust higher accordingly.

As for getting rid of Tips, that is Absurd.
Great Bartenders and servers make more then say 15 dollars an hour,
I used to work at Private Golf Club which is predominately republican and they do not tip. ( many are clueless to our economic crash and Europes.
(When a former Democrat Governor was on the Course.
Many of the members literally left the Club because a Democrat was Golfing.)

They did not allow for tips because they wanted to have people
"think" they treated the employees good... And no health Insurance...
If an Employee took a tip, they would get fired.

Conversely 14 years ago at another Private Club, I made nearly twice that due to tips as a result of customer service.. Sadly they to did not offer health insurance to full time employees.
And lost of good employees due to it. That changed after an employer died to a lack of Insurance (he also went bankrupt, and due to the awesome membership, they paid it off for him.)

The members were phenomenal, but it was operated by a corporation.

All the more reason we need a single payer or public option system to save people and businesses money.
I hope Tom Douglas supports either system.

Currently Washington State is one of the only states to have the same minimum wage for tipped employees and non tipped employees.
We also have the highest minimum wage at the State Level .

The ideal solution if minimum wage is 15 dollars an hour is for tipped workers to be paid say 11 dollars an hour and then *digest* the Data and adjust higher accordingly.

As for getting rid of Tips, that is Absurd.
Great Bartenders and servers make more then say 15 dollars an hour,
I used to work at Private Golf Club which is predominately republican and they do not tip. ( many are clueless to our economic crash and Europes.
(When a former Democrat Governor was on the Course.
Many of the members literally left the Club because a Democrat was Golfing.)

They did not allow for tips because they wanted to have people
"think" they treated the employees good... And no health Insurance...
If an Employee took a tip, they would get fired.

Conversely 14 years ago at another Private Club, I made nearly twice that due to tips as a result of customer service.. Sadly they to did not offer health insurance to full time employees.
And lost a lot of good employees due to it. That changed after an employer died to a lack of Insurance (he also went bankrupt, and due to the awesome membership, they paid it off for him.)

The members were phenomenal, but it was operated by a corporation.

Why do hard working restaurant owners who have been taking great care of its cooks and employees have to take a pay cut or close his restaurants to pay for the high wage?

This will impact all industries, not just restaurants. Although I am for people making a decent living, I don't see how sudden hike to $15 will improve someone's lifestyle. Here are some of the issues that no one has talked about;
1) It will force companies like Amazon to lower their operating cost by outsourcingtheir service or move to a more affordable location. This will impact employment in a negative way.
2) Smaller companies will closedown and it will force them to cut hours and benefits.
3) What will happen to those already make $15? Especially those employees who worked years to get to that pay rate? Do we increase their wage by a large percentage? Imagine making the same amount as someone who just walked throug the door.
4) If $15 applies to tip positions in the restaraunt world, i anticipate cooks wanting to be servers.
5) The increased wage will result higher cost of living. People will gripe when they can't afford to live in the Seattle area. We are already living in one of the most expensive city in the country. We may end up like California.

There is a saying of becareful for what you wish for because your wishes may end up haunting you. The proponent to this bill only look at data on a piece of paper but we must have a reality check. Will the drastic pay increase improve a person's life? It may not be as good as what many people think.

One business closed is workers without a job. The math is simple. Get a life....