Seattle min wage $15, highest in nation

[Star]

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.

Seattle is not even close to being the wettest place in the country.

Seattle, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
Chicago, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
NY, on average gets about 50 inches of precipitation/year
New Orleans, on average gets about 62 inches of precipitation/year
Portland, OR, on average gets about 43 inches of precipitation/year


Seattle Doesn’t Get That Much Rain

<snip>

But the primary root of this rainy misconception really lies in that Seattle has a relatively high amount of days per year with precipitation (158), compared to such places as New York (119), Boston (127), and Nashville (119). All cities that get an average of about 16% more rain per year than Seattle, but also average between them about 36 less days a year of precipitation. So it rains a lot less in Seattle, but is spread out over about a month more of days than those cities. This is why almost no native Seattle-ite carries an umbrella generally. When it does rain, it tends to be a very light drizzle that isn’t bothersome. It almost never really “rains” as most people from places like Alabama, Boston, or the like think of rain. On top of that, it never really storms in Seattle either. Seattle gets an average of a mere seven days a year where thunder is heard, for instance.

​

Another contributing factor is that Seattle doesn’t have a very uniform distribution of cloudy or rainy days from month to month like Boston, New York, and many other major U.S. cities have. As a rule, it pretty much is cloudy with occasional light drizzles from October through March in Seattle. Then from April through September, Seattle gets almost no rain and from June through September almost no cloudy days. Makes for a very nice climate if you don’t like large changes in weather. Around 45 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in the winter, with only an average of 8 light snow days, and around 75 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny in the summer.​

<snip>


Seattle already has the highest MW in the country and yet-----and yet Seattle is almost always included on most livable cities list - might be the cheap electricity?

Most Livable Cities
1. Portland
2. Austin
3. San Francisco
4. Seattle
5. Minneapolis
6. Las Vegas
7. Atlanta
8. Long beach
9. Denver
10. Phoenix
11. Washington DC
12. Boston
.

 

[Jughead]

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.

Of course they can. Businesses earn a lot more than you think, but they care more about making as much money as they possibly can, than about paying their employees a decent wage.

It's not that simple at times. Some of the smaller businesses barely manage to break even as it is.

Here are some excerpts from an interesting Forbes magazine article...

The belief that increasing the minimum wage is socially beneficial is a delusion. It is short-sighted and ignores evident reality. Workers who retain their jobs are made better off but only at the expense of unskilled, mostly young, workers who either lose their jobs or can’t find a job at the legal minimum.

There is abundant evidence that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage leads to a 1 to 3 percent decrease in employment of low-skilled workers (using teens as a proxy) in the short run, and to a larger decrease in the long run, along with rising unemployment.

Politicians promise low-skilled workers a higher wage, but that promise cannot be kept if employers cannot profit from retaining those workers or hiring similar workers. Jobs will be lost, not created; and unemployment will rise as more workers search for jobs but can’t find any at the above-market wage.

Most employers cannot simply raise prices to cover the higher minimum wage, particularly in the competitive services sector. And if they do increase prices, consumers will buy less or have less money to spend on other things, meaning fewer jobs on net. Moreover, if the minimum wage cuts into profits, there will be less capital investment and job growth will slow.

The Minimum Wage Delusion, And The Death Of Common Sense - Forbes

 

[DriftingSand]

For Sale in Seattle

$450,000
See Homes for Sale in America?s Most Walkable Cities | Zillow Blog

$1,100,000
Laurelhurst Real Estate & Laurelhurst Seattle WA Homes for Sale | Coldwell Banker

Seattle has some of the most restrictive land use and development regulations in the nation.
The cause of these high real estate prices( not value) is due to new urbanism and smart growth policies which curtailed the supply of available housing. With reduced supply and no reduction in demand cause RE prices to skyrocket well beyond the average middle class family or individual.
The thought process of smart growth was to reduce pollution and suburban sprawl.
Well the result was that middle class people began leaving Seattle for far flung exurban towns. Longer commutes by car are now the norm. With all those vehicles on the road for longer periods of time creates the very same pollution concerns that sparked the new urbansim craze.
These smart growth people don't care a lick about pollution or the environment. They are the elites who abhor the idea of individual home ownership. They cannot stand when towns on the outer rings of major cities grow as people move out of the city.

Good post. Very informative.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

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.

Seattle is not even close to being the wettest place in the country.

Seattle, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
Chicago, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
NY, on average gets about 50 inches of precipitation/year
New Orleans, on average gets about 62 inches of precipitation/year
Portland, OR, on average gets about 43 inches of precipitation/year


Seattle Doesn’t Get That Much Rain

<snip>

But the primary root of this rainy misconception really lies in that Seattle has a relatively high amount of days per year with precipitation (158), compared to such places as New York (119), Boston (127), and Nashville (119). All cities that get an average of about 16% more rain per year than Seattle, but also average between them about 36 less days a year of precipitation. So it rains a lot less in Seattle, but is spread out over about a month more of days than those cities. This is why almost no native Seattle-ite carries an umbrella generally. When it does rain, it tends to be a very light drizzle that isn’t bothersome. It almost never really “rains” as most people from places like Alabama, Boston, or the like think of rain. On top of that, it never really storms in Seattle either. Seattle gets an average of a mere seven days a year where thunder is heard, for instance.

​

Another contributing factor is that Seattle doesn’t have a very uniform distribution of cloudy or rainy days from month to month like Boston, New York, and many other major U.S. cities have. As a rule, it pretty much is cloudy with occasional light drizzles from October through March in Seattle. Then from April through September, Seattle gets almost no rain and from June through September almost no cloudy days. Makes for a very nice climate if you don’t like large changes in weather. Around 45 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in the winter, with only an average of 8 light snow days, and around 75 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny in the summer.​

<snip>


Seattle already has the highest MW in the country and yet-----and yet Seattle is almost always included on most livable cities list - might be the cheap electricity?

Most Livable Cities
1. Portland
2. Austin
3. San Francisco
4. Seattle
5. Minneapolis
6. Las Vegas
7. Atlanta
8. Long beach
9. Denver
10. Phoenix
11. Washington DC
12. Boston
.

It's the way western Washington get's the rain is the problem. Misty gray weather for months on end. Seems like there is moss on everything.

 

[Againsheila]

The Statist argument is simple, we need the government to set minimum wages because evil capitalists will exploit the poor workers...booo hooo......

But only 0.8% of workers in Washington state earn the minimum wage. Seems to me that this is a "solution" to a non-existent problem....

at .8% of the workers, it darn well isn't the "doom and gloom" people are saying it will be.

 

[OnePercenter]

The Statist argument is simple, we need the government to set minimum wages because evil capitalists will exploit the poor workers...booo hooo......

But only 0.8% of workers in Washington state earn the minimum wage. Seems to me that this is a "solution" to a non-existent problem....

at .8% of the workers, it darn well isn't the "doom and gloom" people are saying it will be.

Only 0.08% of workers make <$15.00/hr?

 

[Flopper]

Neither of them would go over 150k here. Our $9 hr min wage buys a helluva lot more than your $15 hr min wage.

LMAO

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

And you'll get more people traveling in to the city for work, increase traffic, then go home and spend the money in the suburbs like Des Moines, Lynnwood and Everett.

This is the mayor's plan and hasn't been approve by the city council. If approved the plan will take about 10 years to fully implement it. The devil is of course in the details but figuring out those details is not easy.

The proposal gives big business—defined as those with more than 500 employees nationally—three years to raise wages to $15 an hour, and four years if they provide healthcare. “Small” businesses, which cover more than 99 percent of businesses in Seattle and70 percent of full-time workers, have seven years—until 2021—to get to $15 an hour if they only offer wages. If the employer offers healthcare or the worker earns tips, then those dollar amounts will be added to wages so their “minimum compensation” is $15 an hour by 2019.

Are your eyes glazing over? There’s more. The mayor’s communications director, Jeff Reading, says businesses must offer a healthcare plan at the Silver level or higher under the Affordable Care Act to count as paid compensation. As each group of workers reaches the $15-an-hour threshold, an annual cost-of-living adjustment of 2.4 percent will kick in. Finally, the minimum compensation will be phased out by 2025, and by which time, thanks to the cost-of-living adjustments, the wage floor is projected to be as $18.13 an hour. If this plan holds, it will outstrip the state’s minimum wage, which also has built-in cost-of-living increases and is projected to reach $12.08 an hour by 2025. I want go into the loopholes, because I doubt anyone is interested at this point.

This plan is not going to be implemented. Even if city council doesn't tear it to pieces immediately, they will as the questions and comments from businesses mount.

What To Make of Seattle?s $15 Minimum Wage Plan

 

[Zander]

The Statist argument is simple, we need the government to set minimum wages because evil capitalists will exploit the poor workers...booo hooo......

But only 0.8% of workers in Washington state earn the minimum wage. Seems to me that this is a "solution" to a non-existent problem....

at .8% of the workers, it darn well isn't the "doom and gloom" people are saying it will be.

If they tried to force the min wage to $15 as the Mayor of Seattle wants, I think it would be a catastrophe. But thankfully, it will never pass. It's ridiculously complicated, and simply not necessary.

Nationally, less than 5% of workers make minimum wage. Read the facts - Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2012

 

[Flopper]

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.

Seattle is not even close to being the wettest place in the country.

Seattle, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
Chicago, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
NY, on average gets about 50 inches of precipitation/year
New Orleans, on average gets about 62 inches of precipitation/year
Portland, OR, on average gets about 43 inches of precipitation/year


Seattle Doesn’t Get That Much Rain

<snip>

But the primary root of this rainy misconception really lies in that Seattle has a relatively high amount of days per year with precipitation (158), compared to such places as New York (119), Boston (127), and Nashville (119). All cities that get an average of about 16% more rain per year than Seattle, but also average between them about 36 less days a year of precipitation. So it rains a lot less in Seattle, but is spread out over about a month more of days than those cities. This is why almost no native Seattle-ite carries an umbrella generally. When it does rain, it tends to be a very light drizzle that isn’t bothersome. It almost never really “rains” as most people from places like Alabama, Boston, or the like think of rain. On top of that, it never really storms in Seattle either. Seattle gets an average of a mere seven days a year where thunder is heard, for instance.

​

Another contributing factor is that Seattle doesn’t have a very uniform distribution of cloudy or rainy days from month to month like Boston, New York, and many other major U.S. cities have. As a rule, it pretty much is cloudy with occasional light drizzles from October through March in Seattle. Then from April through September, Seattle gets almost no rain and from June through September almost no cloudy days. Makes for a very nice climate if you don’t like large changes in weather. Around 45 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in the winter, with only an average of 8 light snow days, and around 75 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny in the summer.​

<snip>


Seattle already has the highest MW in the country and yet-----and yet Seattle is almost always included on most livable cities list - might be the cheap electricity?

Most Livable Cities
1. Portland
2. Austin
3. San Francisco
4. Seattle
5. Minneapolis
6. Las Vegas
7. Atlanta
8. Long beach
9. Denver
10. Phoenix
11. Washington DC
12. Boston
.

It's the way western Washington get's the rain is the problem. Misty gray weather for months on end. Seems like there is moss on everything.

That's true. It rarely rains very hard. Most people don't carry umbrellas or rain coats. After a while, you hardly even notice the rain because it rains a bit almost every day for about 9 months. I've live in every part of the country. To me, this is one of the most beautiful places in the nation, that is when there's enough light to see it.

 

[OnePercenter]

NYC in the spring.
Coronado, CA and Avalon, CA in the summer.
Vegas anytime.

 

[Papageorgio]

Companies that have businesses outside the city limits will have a good advantage on pricing.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

 

[OnePercenter]

Companies that have businesses outside the city limits will have a good advantage on pricing.

Only if the city has higher business taxes/fees than a county area. But if the city has subsidies for their businesses, then a city based business advantage on pricing will be better than a county based.

 

[Papageorgio]

Companies that have businesses outside the city limits will have a good advantage on pricing.

Only if the city has higher business taxes/fees than a county area. But if the city has subsidies for their businesses, then a city based business advantage on pricing will be better than a county based.

Seattle doesn't help businesses, hell the are barely hanging on to Starbucks.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

 

[Star]

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.

Seattle is not even close to being the wettest place in the country.

Seattle, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
Chicago, on average gets about 37 inches of precipitation/year
NY, on average gets about 50 inches of precipitation/year
New Orleans, on average gets about 62 inches of precipitation/year
Portland, OR, on average gets about 43 inches of precipitation/year


Seattle Doesn’t Get That Much Rain

<snip>

But the primary root of this rainy misconception really lies in that Seattle has a relatively high amount of days per year with precipitation (158), compared to such places as New York (119), Boston (127), and Nashville (119). All cities that get an average of about 16% more rain per year than Seattle, but also average between them about 36 less days a year of precipitation. So it rains a lot less in Seattle, but is spread out over about a month more of days than those cities. This is why almost no native Seattle-ite carries an umbrella generally. When it does rain, it tends to be a very light drizzle that isn’t bothersome. It almost never really “rains” as most people from places like Alabama, Boston, or the like think of rain. On top of that, it never really storms in Seattle either. Seattle gets an average of a mere seven days a year where thunder is heard, for instance.

​

Another contributing factor is that Seattle doesn’t have a very uniform distribution of cloudy or rainy days from month to month like Boston, New York, and many other major U.S. cities have. As a rule, it pretty much is cloudy with occasional light drizzles from October through March in Seattle. Then from April through September, Seattle gets almost no rain and from June through September almost no cloudy days. Makes for a very nice climate if you don’t like large changes in weather. Around 45 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in the winter, with only an average of 8 light snow days, and around 75 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny in the summer.​

<snip>


Seattle already has the highest MW in the country and yet-----and yet Seattle is almost always included on most livable cities list - might be the cheap electricity?

Most Livable Cities
1. Portland
2. Austin
3. San Francisco
4. Seattle
5. Minneapolis
6. Las Vegas
7. Atlanta
8. Long beach
9. Denver
10. Phoenix
11. Washington DC
12. Boston
.

It's the way western Washington get's the rain is the problem. Misty gray weather for months on end. Seems like there is moss on everything.

It's true Western Washington is among the wettest, if not the wettest area in the country but-----but Seattle? - not so much, and we're talking about Seattle.
I'm guessing you didn't read the bolded part of my C&P?
Check it out, Seattle has spectacular summers (May-September) with very few cloudy days and less rain than a whole bunch-o-places that a lot of people think have better weather than Seattle.

Average Weather for Seattle, WA - Temperature and Precipitation
Average Weather for Nashville, TN - Temperature and Precipitation
Average Weather for New York, NY - Temperature and Precipitation
Average Weather for Orlando, FL - Temperature and Precipitation
Average Weather for Portland, OR - Temperature and Precipitation

See what I'm sayin'? and-----and consider, if Seattle's weather is as bad as some think it is, how do you explain Seattle showing up on just about every "most livable city" list that comes down the pike?

.

 

[Iceweasel]

See what I'm sayin'? and-----and consider, if Seattle's weather is as bad as some think it is, how do you explain Seattle showing up on just about every "most livable city" list that comes down the pike?

That depends on the criteria whoever puts the list together. Summer is typically between mid July to mid September. There are many nice days otherwise but don't plan too far in advance for that outdoor BBQ. The temperature range is fairly moderate, it don't get very hot or very cold much, most places vary much more. Little humidity.

Most livable probably accounts for outdoor activities, the Sound, mountains, islands, beaches, boating, etc. and the "arts". You would have to pay me a LOT to live there so I can't take lists like that seriously.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

As we know, our congress works only 126 days a year and vacation the rest of the year.

 

[Rozman]

What a bunch of pussies....
If raising it to $15.00 will have no adverse effect on anything and it's gonna make it all better...
Wouldn't raising it to $25.00 an hour be more gooder.

 

[Papageorgio]

What a bunch of pussies....
If raising it to $15.00 will have no adverse effect on anything and it's gonna make it all better...
Wouldn't raising it to $25.00 an hour be more gooder.

I'm all for making it all more gooder, Seattle is a depressing area, unless it is sunny which is few and far between. You do need air conditioning one or two days a year otherwise you put a jacket on and forget about it.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

 

[Star]

What a bunch of pussies....
If raising it to $15.00 will have no adverse effect on anything and it's gonna make it all better...
Wouldn't raising it to $25.00 an hour be more gooder.

Yes!
.

 

[Againsheila]

As we know, our congress works only 126 days a year and vacation the rest of the year.

Absolutely criminal.