We are a group of Seattle’s progressive small businesses who are against the new City Council’s attacks on our city’s historic $15 minimum wage law. We believe these attacks are the starting point of an attempt to fundamentally undermine the minimum wage and that they must be defeated.
We are proud of the movement of working people, unions, and progressive small businesses that made Seattle the first major city to pass a $15 minimum wage—some of us were part of that movement a decade ago.
At that time, we rejected the scaremongering tactics and lies being put forward by big business interests and corporate Democratic City Council members who were against $15 per hour. We also reject them now.
We refuse to accept the false dichotomy that, in order to succeed, small businesses need to attack our employees’ wages and benefits.
Instead, we commit to fighting for progressive measures to support both small businesses and working people in this city, like creating a small-business support program paid for by expanding the Amazon Tax—which taxes our city’s wealthiest corporations—and fighting for commercial and residential rent control. Former Councilmember Kshama Sawant tirelessly put forward these and other small-business-friendly policy proposals during her decade in office, but the Democrats on the City Council refused to support them, instead siding with big business and corporate landlords every time.
We are writing this letter in response to the anti-worker legislation District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth put forward just before the end of the council session this summer, which she has promised to re-introduce in the fall after some “strategic tweaks.” The bill she introduced, if passed, would enshrine the two-tier system of wages that was set to expire in 2025, creating a permanent sub-minimum wage for workers at businesses who employ 500 people or fewer. This would mean that over 200,000 of our city’s minimum-wage workers would be denied at least $3/hour of wage increases.
Businesses with 500 or so employees are not “small,” but somewhere between Zeeks and Pagliacci sized chains with 13-20 locations. Let’s be clear, the real intention of this legislation is to begin to dismantle our progressive $15/hour law on behalf of big business. Hollingsworth’s attempt to make the lower-tier wage permanent is just a first step down that path. If our community lets the City Council get away with this attack, it will only embolden them, and the big business interests they serve, to keep attacking our minimum wage, and other progressive victories, including renters’ rights.
And such a bill would not just be a blow to workers in this city. If any rollback of our minimum wage is successful in Seattle, the attacks will spread to other major cities across the country, attacking the wages of millions of workers. We cannot let that happen.
It is no accident that Hollingsworth and the other Councilmembers are hiding behind small businesses with this attack. Most people would not feel sympathy for the big corporations who have made record profits in recent years. Hollingsworth has said that her bill is motivated by concern for small business owners who are suffering from sustained losses incurred during the pandemic. These are crocodile tears. In reality, when small businesses were suffering under COVID and the large majority of aid subsidies were going to big businesses—not small—neither Seattle nor D.C. Democrats lifted a finger to stand up for us.
And what about the incalculable sacrifices workers made during the pandemic, only to now be rewarded with a pay cut while facing down soaring rents and costs of living? Rather than looking for progressive solutions, like increasing the Amazon Tax and making the billionaires pay, the Council Democrats are going after the lowest paid, most vulnerable workers in this city.
Many small businesses are struggling for the same reasons workers are—rents have skyrocketed and we’re constantly getting pushed out by big businesses like Amazon and Starbucks.
Meanwhile, Amazon raked in record profits throughout the pandemic, reporting a profit increase of over 220% in the first quarter of 2020 alone. Corporate developers also took advantage of the Covid crisis, having no qualms raising Seattle rents by 24% in 2021.
Since then, inflation hasn’t stopped and rents are still going up. For many workers in Seattle, it’s hard to live close to where they work even at the current minimum wage. According to a new survey, 64% of Seattle-area renters had an increase in rent in the past 12 months. For most, the increase was more than $100 per month. And even more shocking, Seattle metro area rents increased by nearly 92 percent between 2010 and 2020. Workers are certainly not given a discount on their rent because they work at a small business.
As progressive small business owners, we recognize the increase in the minimum wage has made it more possible for many of our workers to stay living in the city, stay working at our small businesses, and have money in their pockets to spend. Not only do workers deserve a living wage, but it works to the benefit of Seattle’s small businesses.
Ten years ago when we were fighting for the $15 minimum wage, big businesses brought out chicken little arguments, saying that Seattle would become a ghost town, or that the increase in the minimum wage would hurt workers rather than help them. This was all nonsense, and a decade later, the sky still has not fallen. Yet now these same tired arguments are being trotted out once more, again with absolutely no data to back them up. It is also suspect that the loudest voices in support of this attack are some of the same (not so small) business owners who were against $15/hour ten years ago.
This attack on our minimum wage has nothing to do with small businesses, and everything to do with paving the way for big corporations to maximize their profits by clawing back our historic minimum wage victory and others our movements have won over the past decade. The Council Democrats will not stop if they are successful in this attack. In fact, this would only add fuel to their broader conservative agenda. This thoroughly corporate city council has already made it clear that our renters’ rights are in their crosshairs as well, beginning with rolling back the bans on winter and school-year evictions.
We are therefore calling on fellow progressive small business owners: don’t allow Democrats to use us as a shield to attack workers on behalf of big business. Join us in getting organized against these regressive attacks. And fight for real solutions like commercial rent control and taxing big business.
Our minimum wage is the highest in the country precisely because it was won by a strong movement of workers and unions, led by Sawant’s socialist city council office, fighting against vicious opposition from big business and the Council Democrats. And that is what it will take to defend it.
Shirley Henderson, Squirrel Chops
Caleb Hoffmann, formerly of Blotto
Cathy Kerns, HIIT LAB
Ian Sample, Ballard Jiu Jitsu
Michelle Forbes, PJ’s Classic Creamery
Mike Dempster, MIRAGE Beer Co.
Swanson’s Shoe Repair
Amy Graham, Jilted Siren
Shirley Henderson is the owner of Squirrel Chops in Seattle’s Central District. She and the other signers of this letter are organizing progressive small businesses to testify in public comment at City Hall, starting tomorrow, September 2nd at 2pm.
Author: “Former Councilmember Kshama Sawant tirelessly put forward these and other small-business-friendly policy proposals during her decade in office”
And then cites one example from 8 years ago and literally nothing from Sawant’s last term in office.
Who?
By which I mean I’ve never heard of any of these businesses or the people running them… Why should I care what they have to say?
The hand that holds the pen today, finger-banged the minor yesterday.
Theoretically, of course.
Are they still a Progressive business owner if they’re only formerly a business owner?
“Caleb Hoffmann, formerly of Blotto”
Note the “formerly”.
Seattle’s voters do not want poverty wages, and especially do not want to subsidize failing businesses (and failing business models) with poverty wages. Even Sawant’s $15 (not) Now (and not) for Everyone, the weakest of local minimum-wage efforts, was a feeble step in the right direction, and the loopholes Sawant put there to get her name on it should be closed, not extended.
The absolute worst way to make these excellent points was with a pile of pro-Sawant propaganda, from ‘business owners’ known to almost no one.
Small business friendly – unless of course your (likely side gig) business is being a small landlord – apparently.
If I have to pay $30+ for a burger and fries and drink with “compulsory” 22% tip on top of 11% sales tax, to cover a $20+ minimum wage then I fail to see why said establishment selling that burger can’t pay market rents for their high-foot-traffic trendy storefront and those workers – who hopefully don’t think that minimum wage at any mandated rate will ever be more than an entry level job they will most likely have to quit from to get a decent raise – can’t either rent a room or double/team up and easily afford a 2br apartment or something bigger with more people. Can’t find rooms or apartments or a house to rent as a share? Maybe don’t drive off the landlords with policies forcing impossible risks on them.
certain “progressives” love to say businesses that can’t afford their expenses like the current minimum wage don’t deserve to stay operating. I love how that applies everywhere except the business of housing apparently where those operators are supposed to get by (but just barely – heaven forbid a profit be made) with less than market rates.
Blotto was a very successful and beloved Capitol Hill pizza restaurant for 3 years that had lines out the door every night but was closed because their landlord decided they wanted to demolish the building for apartments. Unfortunately seems to be the end of most interesting and successful businesses in Seattle.
Squirrel Chops and HITT lab are also businesses in the Central District and actually small businesses rather than another uniquely named franchise owned by the restaurant lords of Seattle.
Lost in the idealogical platitudes and sense of moral righteousness is reality. Here are some truths that continually are left unspoken. You will never be able to afford to live in Seattle making the minimum wage unless you are willing to take on several roommates and even then it may be difficult. All businesses are constrained by the market meaning customers will not pay more than the perceived value of the product. We are already seeing this with the delivery apps when they instituted the fees and business massively declined. As such there is also a fixed amount that can be allocated to labor and if the cost of labor goes above that amount the business will either fold or look to automate to cut labor costs. The net result of these policies is there are some folks who no doubt make more money but they are are an equal or greater number who now find themselves without a job because the business could no longer afford the role. For those without a job it will be very difficult to find a new one. If a min wage job is the best they can do because of limited skills or disadvantages they will find themselves in a large pool of similar applicants seeking fewer and fewer jobs. As the pool of lower skill jobs shrink it will be increasingly difficult for people entering the job market for the first time (like teens or immigrants) to obtain a position. Perhaps all of this is for the greater good and as noted businesses that can not pay a “living wage” don’t deserve to operate but I also see a growing group of people who will be unable to find any work and I wonder what will happen to them.
“Most people
would not feel sympathy
for the big corporations who
have made record profits in recent years.”
can you say Price-
gouging and
Inflation?
corporate America’s
a Vulture living on
the Carcass of
our Ustabee
American
Dream
and Corporate
‘democrats’
Cannot
Wait
for their fare share.
“This attack on our minimum wage has nothing to do with small businesses, and everything to do with paving the way for big corporations to maximize their profits by clawing back our historic minimum wage victory and others our movements have won over the past decade.”
fucking bingo.
Despisers
Hate Sawant
because she despises
Corporate Dominionism
which makes the Despisers
fearful they might lose
their dispicable
Dominion
over All.
capitalism unbridled
WILL destroy America.
see: our Homeless & our
failed “Healthcare” system
just for starters.
@11 feel free to provide an example of a society not using capitalism that has solved those issues or is more successful.
@12
there
goeth
d13r totes
IGNORING
the adj. UN-
fucking Bridled.
your Mission
is Unaccomplished.
& as for
‘successful’
also Ignore
our Homeless
and our 100,000.00
un- and Underinsured
Healthcarewise. what Are you
a fucking Fascist?
@14 you’re ridiculous. There is no such thing as unbridled capitalism so I guess you’re ok with everything then? Capitalism has also done more to lift people out of poverty than any other economic system so if you think those stats are bad under capitalism than wait until you see how they are under something different.
@15
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China
“Between 1990 and 2005, China’s progress accounted for more than three-quarters of global poverty reduction and was largely responsible for the world reaching the UN millennium development target of dividing extreme poverty in half.”
Anywho, you may continue
@15
“There
is no such thing
as unbridled capitalism”
really?
& McMitch
KkKonnell did
NOT stack ‘our’
formerly-Supreme
Court with far far Far
reich-wing Extremist Activist
Ideologues & ‘Citizens United’
did not Fundamentally Reconfigure
Politics in America?
for Whom
do you Work?
certainly
Not The
Citizenry.
oh and declaring
it’s Either Unregulated
Capitalism or Commie Rule
is some utter bullshit
that Feeds your
Extremist nar-
rative.
@9 ” The net result of these policies is there are some folks who no doubt make more money but they are are an equal or greater number who now find themselves without a job because the business could no longer afford the role. “
Your claim is mostly not supported by the data. Most modern data show that increases in the minimum wage have resulted into greater employment, which makes sense since lower income brackets spend almost all their income on consumer goods for daily living that make up the larger part of our economy.
@18 you should take that up with the UW: https://evans.uw.edu/new-evidence-from-the-seattle-minimum-wage-study. Note the part where is says there is evidence of a decline in hiring.
from the study:
“Low-wage workers employed before the policy took effect saw their wages rise more than their hours fell, yielding a net increase of around $12 per week. This increase in pay was larger for low-wage workers with more prior labor market experience. The team found evidence of a decline in the rate of hiring of low-wage workers who were not previously employed in the state of Washington as the minimum wage in the city reached $13 an hour.
@16: You mean the period where China effectively abandoned Marxism, and decided to work with international business, saw a vast reduction in extreme poverty? That period?
@19: That’s correct. Business’ response to increasing labor costs was to do more with the workers they had, instead of hiring more. Persons already working got paid more for doing less. That’s always the trade-off with higher labor standards. Done well, they drive more efficiency in business.
@17, etc.: Anyone going on about “unbridled capitalism” in a dialog about some of the highest minimum wages in the country has really lost the plot.
Imagine thinking a 500 employee local operation is a “big business.” There is no such thing as an expansion of the “Amazon Tax” if Amazon doesn’t want to pay it it won’t happen, they will simply move, write down their real estate losses, pay less taxes than they do now, and the consumer base that supports these small business evaporates, property values collapse wiping out local equity, and Seattle becomes Detroit. Such a tax would only work if it was applied on a national, or state level for some businesses, which is a pipe dream. The current “Amazon tax” only works because they were involved in crafting it and decided it was worth the benefits they still retain from remaining, there is no way a tax like that works on solely a local level if it’s taken to an extreme. We really need to teach more economics in primary school.
regulatory capture
quite Common in these
formerly-United States has
enabled the filthy rich to price
Elections outta the Citizenrry’s grasp
that they should further seek
to remove the Floor on wages
comes as no big surprise in our
little War on both the Middle Class
(what’s Left of it anyways) and those
struggling, week-to-week, just Trying to
keep their roof over their heads, their cars,
in their hours-long commutes, on the roads
and so much more, but we’ll just ignore all that
and complain
whine bitch and
moan about the SOCIALIST!
who came to Seattle! and made
us reconsider for a little while our
rush to continue Enriching the already
Rich is cheerleaded
by some few who
already Got
Theirs and
to Hell
with
the
“Bottom”
90 percent.
the Neolib
& Con is
Strong
here
@
tS.
@19 This paper’s findings (the 2nd paper at your link) are certainly contrary to what I have read (example: https://equitablegrowth.org/working-papers/minimum-wage-effects-and-monopsony-explanations/) but I am not entirely sure how their method compare to others, in part because it is behind an academic paywall, but I am also not going to pretend this is one of my area of expertise so I won’t comment for the moment. I will concede that worked hours is clearly a more powerful gauge of employment than how many are employed.
@15 “There is no such thing as unbridled capitalism”
This is mostly untrue. Neoliberalism is unfettered/deregulated capitalism where the economic freedom of a few is more important than the welfare of many. The symptoms of unfettered capitalism (defanged/captured regulatory agencies, grotesque inequalities and monopolies that own many of our politicians) during the neoliberal era are the same as/equivalent to what they were during the robber baron era in the late 19th century.
This is what Joseph Stiglitz (a proponent of regulated capitalism) says about it, the entire short column out of his new book is well worth reading: “Understanding the meaning of freedom is central to creating an economic and political system that delivers not only on efficiency, equity, and sustainability but also on moral values. Freedom—understood as having inherent ties to notions of equity, justice, and well-being—is itself a central value. And it is this broad notion of freedom that has been given short shrift by powerful strands in modern economic thinking—notably the one that goes by the shorthand term neoliberalism, the belief that the freedom that matters most, and from which other freedoms indeed flow, is the freedom of unregulated, unfettered markets.”
@23 link to Stiglitz column: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/neoliberalism-freedom-markets-hayek/678124/
the disinformation
from tS’s reich wing
conningtariat is Deep
thank you
averagebob.
@23 I will grant you the notion we are in a new gilded age however that still does not make it “unfettered” capitalism. Unfettered of course means unrestrained and there are regulations around how companies operate and what they do. I would also agree that those regulations are not necessarily sufficient and need to be strengthened. Regulations are reactive by nature and the guardrails that were in place for the monopolies of old don’t work for the current age because today the product is you and your information. I think where we differ is many progressives believe the government should be the arbiters and decide winners and losers whereas I think they need to modify the regulations and allow the market to work as intended.
fwiw your description of unfettered capitalism is even more true in socialist and communist economies so even flawed capitalism is still better than those choices.
the ‘free market’
is working Precisely
as the Profiteers have
Engineered it — for THEM.
socialist
Scandinavia
seems to be working
quite Well for Scandinavians
tho with Colonization
& a rapidly-deteriorating
Climate peeps’re heading to
Wherever they can to escape
authoritarian regimes, gangsters,
decades-long drought, ‘1,000-year’
storms, year-round smoke & wildfires,
&’re themselves flooding to more habitable
environs; the backlash on immigration
asylum-seekers etc are helping give
rise to far right authoritarianism
in places like Scandinavia
and here as well. see:
eltrumpfster and his
merry band of
reactionary
MAGAts
Zealots
and we-
irdos.
with
our blinders on
whilst we continue to
burn fossil fuels we perpetuate
Climatic Disaster leading to more
and more flights of desperate peoples
thus
ensuring
things will
only get Worse.
“… and the guardrails that
were in place for the monopolies
of old don’t work for the current age because… “
They Have
Not Been
Enforced.
also:
courtesy
of the ‘Free
Marketeers,’
aka Profiteers.
@23, @25, etc.: Again, anyone talking about “unfettered” or “unbridled” capitalism, in a discussion thread about just how much higher minimum wages should be, has really, really lost the plot.
There’s a huge difference between “inadequately restrained” and “not restrained at all,” and pretending they are the same simply tells everyone else that there’s no point in dialog on the topic.
@30:
“… in a discussion thread
about just how much
higher minimum
wages should
be… “
oh
Wormtongue
you Completely
Missed the part where
the Authors say what the
Neolibs and Cons’re preparing
Is the Removal
of the Floor
on Wages
your continued
and insidious derailing
of the conversation to steer
it back into Your Narrative is weak
pathetic distracting boring & utter Bullshit.
I 💨
Womit
in your
general
Direction.
@31: “you Completely
Missed the part…”
Read @6 again, and harder this time: “…a pile of pro-Sawant propaganda,”
I did read that part; I just didn’t give any credence to it, because it’s just scare-propaganda. The topic of this post and comments are about overcoming the flaws Sawant put into Seattle’s minimum wage law, and removal of those flaws is intended to make the minimum wage higher. There’s no serious proposal to eliminate Seattle’s minimum wage, and so no reason to bother paying attention to such cheap scare tactics. That you were fooled by them is not anyone else’s problem.
right,
Wormtongue.
and when the floor on
Wages Disappears you’ll
Swear you were Always dead-
set Against such measures! and
your nasty little Distractions’ll be
Consigned to the dustbin of history
whilst you con-tinue to spew
your right wing narrative
all over this Stranger’s
very blogs. disgust-
ing, at the least.
@32: I’d already thought this headline post was excessive propaganda, but if even you found it too much to swallow, that really must be something.
@34: Again, the pathetic ease with which you can be gulled isn’t anyone else’s problem.
My “right wing narrative” says we should remove the flaws Sawant put into Seattle’s minimum wage law, thus resulting in a stronger law (i.e. more restrictive on employers) with a higher minimum wage. If that’s now “right wing,” I don’t even want to know what “left-wing” now means to you.
@35
your
dabbling
in left-leaning
causes is but a Ruse
to keep the readership con-
fused gaslighted and wondering
why on Earth they wanna vote for tfg
the donOld post one of your vicious tirades.
speaking of reich-
wing influencers
nyt:
Russia
Secretly
Worms Its Way
Into America’s Conservative Media
Federal prosecutors say Russia paid an American media company to push pro-Kremlin messages from social media influencers including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin.
insidiously, More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/07/business/media/russia-tenet-media-tim-pool.html
but
Why would
Russia worm its
way SOLELY into Con-
servative media outlets?
Nothing like a column on worker wages to bring out the libertarians who dominate Seattle’s politics.
Capitalism is a crime against humanity.
Communism didn’t work. It failed.
Feudalism didn’t work. It failed.
Whatever they call the economic system under the Roman Empire didn’t work, either. It failed, too.
Every economic system in the history of the world has failed. Every one of them.
And now, capitalism has failed, too. Since they invented it in the banks and back rooms of Venice, 5 centuries ago, it’s been getting worse and worse.
Time to end capitalism, and try something else.
@39
Excellent
commentary.
we might begin by
Limiting the Power of
Capitalists to commandeer
OUR Government, tho Late in
coming; & couple it with a Clawing-
back of the Reins of OUR government
we don’t gotta chuck it in its Entirety
not if we the people can Control it
tho That seems increasingly Un-
likely given the breadth and
depth of our Capitalists’
odious and insidious
Capture of nearly
Everything not
nailed glued
& fastened
Down like
Fucking
Bedr-
ock.