Seattle min wage $15, highest in nation

[Flopper]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

You've visited but have not lived there for a couple of decades.

What you say is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out; the same kind of thing exists in large cities world wide. The Seattle metropolitan area has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them, 3 to 4 mile hikes in most of them. A visitor to the city rarely sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown; with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a day trip away; with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip; with the Pacific Coast Range and Cascade Range nearby; within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC.; with the Olympic National Forest (a rain forest) on the Olympic Peninsula, a couple of hours drive from Seattle; and so on. As well, Seattle has some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. You don't really know anything about it.

I've lived there, although it was 30 years ago. By far the #1 thing I remember most was the gray and wet. It's like living in a black and white photo for months on end. You couldn't pay me a high enough wage to ever coax me back to that miserable place.

Miami has about 300 days of sun a year. Seattle has about 300 days of clouds and gloom. It's no place for sun worshipers. Seattle is the only place I have every lived where it can rain for 30 days and when the sun comes out the light hurts your eyes. However, there are offsets.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

You've visited but have not lived there for a couple of decades.

What you say is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out; the same kind of thing exists in large cities world wide. The Seattle metropolitan area has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them, 3 to 4 mile hikes in most of them. A visitor to the city rarely sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown; with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a day trip away; with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip; with the Pacific Coast Range and Cascade Range nearby; within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC.; with the Olympic National Forest (a rain forest) on the Olympic Peninsula, a couple of hours drive from Seattle; and so on. As well, Seattle has some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. You don't really know anything about it.

I've lived there, although it was 30 years ago. By far the #1 thing I remember most was the gray and wet. It's like living in a black and white photo for months on end. You couldn't pay me a high enough wage to ever coax me back to that miserable place.

Miami has about 300 days of sun a year. Seattle has about 300 days clouds and gloom. It's no place for sun worshipers. Seattle is the only place I have every lived where it can rain for 30 days and when sun comes out the light hurts your eyes. However, there are offsets.

There's a lot of natural beauty, but for me at least, the price of all that greenery is way too high. It's bad enough here in Oregon, but western Washington is either gray or wet, or wet and gray.

 

[Esmeralda]

I've been to Seattle. They gave up their beautiful parks and public areas to semi-permanent hovels for transient drunks who piss on the ground and scare innocent kids. It would be nice if the minimum wage put these social outcasts to work but the unintended consequence of the fascist wage law is that small businesses go out of businesses and leave the state.

You've visited but have not lived there for a couple of decades.

What you say is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out; the same kind of thing exists in large cities world wide. The Seattle metropolitan area has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them, 3 to 4 mile hikes in most of them. A visitor to the city rarely sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown; with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a day trip away; with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip; with the Pacific Coast Range and Cascade Range nearby; within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC.; with the Olympic National Forest (a rain forest) on the Olympic Peninsula, a couple of hours drive from Seattle; and so on. As well, Seattle has some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. You don't really know anything about it.

I've lived there, although it was 30 years ago. By far the #1 thing I remember most was the gray and wet. It's like living in a black and white photo for months on end. You couldn't pay me a high enough wage to ever coax me back to that miserable place.

It's not any different than living in Scandinavia or the UK, and millions of people do that, happily. I was once interviewed for a job in Norway because the people who ran the business there wanted native English speakers and knew that the climate was much the same in Seattle as Norway. Obviously millions of people are not bothered by Seattle's climate. And it is important to remember that such a climate produces the 'Emerald' city, meaning there is so much greenery. The Pacific Northwest is possibly the wettest place in the country, but it is also probably the greenest. Also, it has a temperate climate, without a harsh summer or winter. The only things you have to worry about are occasional mild earthquakes.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

You've visited but have not lived there for a couple of decades.

What you say is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out; the same kind of thing exists in large cities world wide. The Seattle metropolitan area has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them, 3 to 4 mile hikes in most of them. A visitor to the city rarely sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown; with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a day trip away; with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip; with the Pacific Coast Range and Cascade Range nearby; within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC.; with the Olympic National Forest (a rain forest) on the Olympic Peninsula, a couple of hours drive from Seattle; and so on. As well, Seattle has some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. You don't really know anything about it.

I've lived there, although it was 30 years ago. By far the #1 thing I remember most was the gray and wet. It's like living in a black and white photo for months on end. You couldn't pay me a high enough wage to ever coax me back to that miserable place.

It's not any different than living in Scandinavia or the UK, and milliions of people do that, happily. I was once interviewed for a job in Norway because the people who ran the business there wanted native English speakers and knew that the climate was much the same in Seattle as Norway. Obviously millions of people are not bothered by Seattle's climate. And it is important to remember that such a climate produces the 'Emerald' city: meaning there is so much greenery. The Pacific Northwest is possibly the wetist place in the country, but it is also probably greenish. Also, it has a temperate climate, without a harsh summer or winter. The only thing you have to worry about are occasional mild earthquakes.

You're right, there are millions who live in western Washington, so obviously many love it.
I'm just not one of them.

 

[DriftingSand]

We will see the economic health of Seattle reflected in this move.

One concern is that as cities raise their minimum wage, more people will move there. We saw this (for a different reason) with the Reagan recession and it put those cities under more stress.

Economic "health?" Poor health perhaps. What we will see:

1) Sharp rise in prices (fast food, restaurants, hotel rates, car washes, etc.). These extra costs will be a burden on them making the new minimum wage which, in essence, will place them back in the same bind they're already in.

2) Reduction in hours to avoid paying for medical insurance. The extra money the entry level workers make will go towards paying for Obamacare.

3) Layoffs. Reduction in the work force will place a greater workload on them who remain in the work force.

 

[Esmeralda]

You've visited but have not lived there for a couple of decades.

What you say is not true. You have most likely visited a few small city parks in the downtown area. That's where the transients and alcoholics hang out; the same kind of thing exists in large cities world wide. The Seattle metropolitan area has a multitude of huge parks and recreation areas along the Sound and around the two large lakes in the city. Huge areas I know because I took my dog hiking in them, 3 to 4 mile hikes in most of them. A visitor to the city rarely sees or experiences these parks and recreation areas. It is a beautiful area with the San Juan Islands within a short ferry ride from downtown; with Mount Rainier and the Pacific Coast a day trip away; with the gorgeous Oregon Coast accessible with a one or two day trip; with the Pacific Coast Range and Cascade Range nearby; within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, Canada and a few hours ferry ride of Victoria, BC.; with the Olympic National Forest (a rain forest) on the Olympic Peninsula, a couple of hours drive from Seattle; and so on. As well, Seattle has some very beautiful, livable neighborhoods. You don't really know anything about it.

I've lived there, although it was 30 years ago. By far the #1 thing I remember most was the gray and wet. It's like living in a black and white photo for months on end. You couldn't pay me a high enough wage to ever coax me back to that miserable place.

Miami has about 300 days of sun a year. Seattle has about 300 days of clouds and gloom. It's no place for sun worshipers. Seattle is the only place I have every lived where it can rain for 30 days and when the sun comes out the light hurts your eyes. However, there are offsets.

I lived in Vienna for 4 years and the PNW for 50. You know what? The climate in Vienna is worse. I don't know what the stats are, but it feels like there are at least 300 days of clouds a year. The winters are frigid and the summers are cloudy and wet. At least in Seattle there is usually a summer; Vienna did not have what I would consider a summer during the two summers I spent there. Vienna is in a depression and most of the year is cloudy, gray, & wet (or bone chilling ice cold in the winter). It is much worse than anything I experienced living in the PNW.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Seattle was an expensive city to visit before this I can only imagine how expensive it will be now.

 

[Esmeralda]

^^^It's a mecca for tourists in the NW US area because there is so much to see. Tourists will find a way to afford it.

 

[Skull Pilot]

^^^It's a mecca for tourists in the NW US area because there is so much to see. Tourists will find a way to afford it.

Or they will go elsewhere.

 

[Esmeralda]

I don't think this rise in minimum wage is going to damage Seattle financially.

 

[Chuckt]

And now you know why we want the minimum wage raised.

Won't help, the pressure is way to high, the 450k house will simply go to 550k. More will move in, rents will rise and your 15 per hour will be $6 in reality.

Enjoy the higher rent and fewer jobs.

Again, we have the highest minimum wage in the nation and we sure as hell didn't lose jobs because of it, if anything we've grown much larger since we raised the mw and indexed it for inflation.

Yeah, things will go up, but everybody will be paying the difference, therefore it will be a small difference. You just don't want to pay an extra 50 cents for your Pizza, fine, don't order one.

And fine. If we don't pay the extra 50 cents for pizza, the business owner will staff less employees of pay them for less hours meaning they will make less especially when waiters and waitresses work off of tips.

 

[Chuckt]

Prediction...by the end of the decade 75% of these jobs will be automated.

It's a simple cost/benefit equation.

The machines will be cheaper than paying a human.

I wouldn't be surprised if pizza wasn't made by a 3D Printer.

 

[Chuckt]

^^^It's a mecca for tourists in the NW US area because there is so much to see. Tourists will find a way to afford it.

Or afford less. If I only have $300 for a trip, raising the price of everything isn't going to get you more money.

 

[Stephanie]

oh well, they elected a Socialist so Socialism is where they will go

more of the I'm Entitled to it, JUST BECAUSE

that's where our society is today

 

[Darkwind]

What has anyone done to earn this increase in wage?

The increase is based on the cost of living, which is high in Seattle.

This is not an answer to the question. What has any minimum wage employee in the Seattle area done to deserve an increase in their wage? How have they earned this new wage?

 

[Wildman]

The new minimum wage increase to $15/hour will inevitably result in large scale layoffs, and business shutdowns. There is no way some businesses can continue to operate, and generate profit with this increase.

$15 an hour ????

that is fucking insane, that bouncing burger you have there

will cost at the very least $14.99, a "happy meal will run about $24.99"

i see another Detroit in the making.., thanks liberfools

 

[Darkwind]

Prediction...by the end of the decade 75% of these jobs will be automated.

It's a simple cost/benefit equation.

The machines will be cheaper than paying a human.

These kinds of predictions and other the sky is falling predictions have been around for as long as I can remember, and that's about 40 years. Every time the minimum wage is raised, or raising it is discussed, the same old predictions arise. Yep. It's the end of civilization as we know it.

Do you also know what other prediction has been around for 40 years? That if we raise the minimum wage, things will be better for those people.

They never seem to get better though, do they? Care to venture a guess as to why?

 

[Darkwind]

I don't think this rise in minimum wage is going to damage Seattle financially.

I can foresee a scenerio in which a hike to 15 an hour will cause a flight of at least 30% of the business in that city. Is that a certainty? No, nothing is ever certain. However, consider this. A business operating at 3% margin will either have to lay off workers, and thereby lose money in work not getting done because more hours will be needed to accomplish everything that needs to be done, or the business will be forced to close and move.

Some people think only in terms of CEO's and their pay and they use it as some kind of talking point. What point they are trying to make escapes them, but they use it. A hike to 15 dollars an hour won't hit major corporations that employe CEO's, but small businesses and LLC that have an owner and maybe a half dozen employees.

 

[editec]

Those of you predicting (praying for?) layoffs and huge price increases are going to be disappointed.

Inflating labor prices have NEVER EVER been shown to cause inflation.

NEVER!

Every time there is inflation, it comes from Government deficit spending or very VERY liberal lending practices.

Let me recap...increasing labor costs have never EVER been shown to cause inflation,

Increasing labor costs follow, they do not lead inflation.

Deny it to your hearts content, but you are either misinformed or simply making shit up to bolster your feeble anti-labor arguments.

 

[Iceweasel]

These decisions are made by self appointed utopians and not business owners. Much of the shipping and supply houses moved out of Seattle a while back, the remaining ones will probably follow suit shortly. I quit going to Seattle 15 years ago because it was already turning to shit with bums living on the streets panhandling hoping for a dogooder, and there are plenty of dogooders.

This is the same city that payed 5 million dollars for 5 downtown self cleaning outhouses only to discover that they became a haven for drug users and prostitution, only to be sold on ebay. They will soon learn a bit more about economics.