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Common Dreams


Though a $10.10 increase is likely going nowhere fast, city of Seattle shows why bolder $15 hike shows promise

Jon Queally, staff writer




The story serves as a reminder of a typical—yet not to be forgotten—scenario in Washington. In this case, a minimum wage increase that would still leave workers barely scraping by is put forth by Democrats in order to give them electoral leverage going into the mid-terms, but even that half-measure is categorized as leftist, anti-business fanaticism by their Republican counterparts (also scoring points with their base). Likely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate—where it heads to floor as early as next week—but not even receive a vote in GOP-controlled House, currently led by Boehner, the increase remains stranded and workers continue to suffer under wages that haven't budged in nearly forty years.

That's Washington.

In Seattle meanwhile, a spirited grassroots campaign to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour is receiving growing popular support. A recent poll by a city business alliance showed that 7 out of 10 local customers favored the dramatic increase, one which economists says gets workers much closer to a truly living wage.

As The Stranger, a local newspaper, reported: "These numbers may be off the charts, but they're rock solid."

"We were certainly surprised," admitted Andrew Thibault, whose company conducted the survey, about the unexpectedly positive results, "but it seems that there is a tipping point."

What's additionally striking is that the poll found support for a straight up increase to $15 with people saying that workers shouldn't wait for the wage to be "phased-in" and that exemptions should not be made. Proving that bold is better, it seemed to analysts that one of main driving forces behind the support for a more aggressive increase in the city was the corresponding fact that people in Seattle are riding a wave of political optimism in which they think the city's moving in the right direction. As The Stranger exlpains:






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