Seattle passes minimum wage of $15.

MMAdict said:
Ill be curious to see how long they take to fully get to 15 dollars. It is typically done in 3 stages over the course of a couple years. If the lawmakers in Seattle were smart they would've included tax breaks over the next few years for small businesses. This way the jump in wages won't hurt them as much.

I personally am i fan of the minimum wage going up and i hope this works great so other states adopt similar laws. I just also think that it should done carefully with the best interest of workers and small businesses in mind. Since both represent the middle class which is the life blood of any economy.
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This is being phased in over several years ( I think its 7 years for small businesses)

Seattle is not a state, 5 miles down the road the minimum wage is still 9.85 here which basically means the small business owners on the other side of the line win.
 
That would be considered really high here... but I'm sure Seattle has a much higher cost of living than the mid-west, so that might make more sense there. Still seems really high for totally un-skilled jobs that were typically designed to be temporary in nature.
 
BPA00 said:
That would be considered really high here... but I'm sure Seattle has a much higher cost of living than the mid-west, so that might make more sense there. Still seems really high for totally un-skilled jobs that were typically designed to be temporary in nature.
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The cost of living in WA state is pretty high, in King County its higher.

In Seattle it is completely ridiculous, but they seem to like it like that, they tax themselves every chance they get.
 
Hawkman3111 said:
This is being phased in over several years ( I think its 7 years for small businesses)

Seattle is not a state, 5 miles down the road the minimum wage is still 9.85 here which basically means the small business owners on the other side of the line win.
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Expect to see businesses move down the road in the near future.
 
EleazarI said:
$15hr isn't that much in this economy
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No, it's not, but I still think it's too much for the jobs being done. Minimum wage jobs are, for the most part, unskilled labor. A lot of them are backbreaking work, but they require no special training or skillset.

I don't think you should be making $2400/month flipping burgers. I've been paid that much for doing college grad level work in the past.
 
I'm assuming this could be fought in court by big business? I mean it's a given that they follow federal m/w, but can a municipality force businesses to increase wages? Would be interesting to see which cities if any will follow suit.
 
5H3RD0G said:
Everybody schedule a move to Seattle. :icon_lol: They say if they raise the prices businesses would have to release people or lessen hours. That is a lie they would make less BUT there dream of expanding at a record pace would lessen. The choice is keep everybody happy or keep the owners happy. Tough choice..............NOT.
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good point other than the moving to seattle. I mean do they really need to have two t's in their name right next to eachother. It serves no purpose and seems like a waste of ink, and they call themselves green counscious, pfft It seems redundant and useless just like all the people that live in that wretched place.
 
I was raised by a mother who worked minimum wage jobs her whole life, and I worked them for several years before busting my butt to get promoted.

I support raising the minimum wage, but $15 is ridiculous. There are many companies paying minimum wage that are boasting record profits like Walmart, Mcdonald's etc BUT those jobs are not skillful enough to warrant $15 an hour. Maybe instead of making it $15 across the board, that a formula could be created saying that if you employ X people, and your declared profit is $X millions/billions a year then you MUST pay $X.00 per hour. That way wage paid is equal to money earned by the company, thus not hurting small businesses that legit can't afford $15 an hour, but also making big profitable companies pay fairly.

The thing is I guess that idea is impossible and complicated to determine and enforce.
 
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Matt4786 said:
No, it's not, but I still think it's too much for the jobs being done. Minimum wage jobs are, for the most part, unskilled labor. A lot of them are backbreaking work, but they require no special training or skillset.

I don't think you should be making $2400/month flipping burgers. I've been paid that much for doing college grad level work in the past.
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Well what happens when you get laid off from your skilled job, and the only job you can find is flipping burgers? Would you like to be making $7 an hour? Because that is what is currently happening now.
 
Edison Carasio said:
I was raised by a mother who worked minimum wage jobs her whole life, and I worked them for several years before busting my butt to get promoted.

I support raising the minimum wage, but $15 is ridiculous. There are many companies paying minimum wage that are boasting record profits like Walmart, Mcdonald's etc BUT those jobs are skillful enough to warrant $15 an hour. Maybe instead of making it $15 across the board, that a formula could be created saying that if you employ X people, and your declared profit is $X millions/billions a year then you MUST pay $X.00 per hour. That way wage paid is equal to money earned by the company, thus not hurting small businesses that legit can't afford $15 an hour, but also making big profitable companies pay fairly.

The thing is I guess that idea is impossible and complicated to determine and enforce.
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agreed.
 
Matt4786 said:
No, it's not, but I still think it's too much for the jobs being done. Minimum wage jobs are, for the most part, unskilled labor. A lot of them are backbreaking work, but they require no special training or skillset.

I don't think you should be making $2400/month flipping burgers. I've been paid that much for doing college grad level work in the past.
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What is "college grad level work" exactly? If I was making 15 an hour with a college degree, I would consider myself a complete failure. Unless you're really doing something you love..
 
Edited my post above. Should read " BUT those jobs are not skillful enough to warrant $15 an hour." The NOT there makes a big difference lol
 
I can remember making $3.10 an hour

Hahahaha
 
Bay Area said:
Well what happens when you get laid off from your skilled job, and the only job you can find is flipping burgers? Would you like to be making $7 an hour? Because that is what is currently happening now.
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Well that's why I had the forsight to make an investment in myself and pursue a career in medicine. The world always needs doctors. A minimum wage job should serve as a wake-up call. If you have no marketable skills, it probably makes sense that you should be living in an apartment with 4 other people. And if you don't like it, then you need to take the time to learn new skills.
 
Execute said:
What is "college grad level work" exactly? If I was making 15 an hour with a college degree, I would consider myself a complete failure. Unless you're really doing something you love..
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I was doing project management, which is a fancy word for admin assist. Yeah...the pay was shit and I did feel like a failure so I went back to school. I'm at the top of my class and I'll be taking the MCATs later this year.

I think that's the point: if your job is ass, it should be on you to make the change rather than some overly paternalistic lawmakers.
 
Matt4786 said:
I was doing project management, which is a fancy word for admin assist. Yeah...the pay was shit and I did feel like a failure so I went back to school. I'm at the top of my class and I'll be taking the MCATs later this year.

I think that's the point: if your job is ass, it should be on you to make the change rather than some overly paternalistic lawmakers.
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I'm a PM now and I've always made significantly more than 15 an hour.

I just don't think 15 dollars an hour is a lot of money. Minimum wage has not been raised to deal with inflation over the years.
 
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