From the Seattle Times:
Seattle City Council approves historic $15 minimum wage
The Seattle City Council unanimously approved a $15 minimum wage Monday, giving its lowest-paid workers a path over the next seven years to the nation’s highest hourly pay.
The outcome was not in doubt as a progressive mayor and City Council throughout the spring vowed to address the national trend of rising income inequality and a city that has become increasingly unaffordable for many of its residents.
But amid the celebration outside City Hall after the vote, cautionary notes also were sounded about Seattle’s leap into the unknown.
“No city or state has gone this far. We go into uncharted territory,” said Seattle City Council member Sally Clark before the council agreed to give workers a 61 percent wage increase over what is already the country’s highest state minimum wage.
Within minutes of the vote, an organization representing national franchises vowed to sue over the law’s treatment of them as large businesses.
Economic suicide - the increased labor costs will be passed right along to the consumer so the person who works for $15/hour will find that their cost of everything they consume will now be 150% of what it is now. Service companies that use lots of employees will find the cost of automation to be suddenly very affordable. It is not working out in SeaTac - why are they trying it here. It is a job-killer.
