[patro]

This is suicide. Basic sustenance is important for survival, but restaurant food goes beyond this. Yes, restaurant food has a certain value to it, but does such an industry serve well in a diverse economy? Think about it: even entry level diesel techs make only 15, but only after going to a year of school. Restaurant workers would make 15 just for having a pulse. Every youngster would say to hell with school and go be a fry machine operator. Suicide.

[wastedyears]

I’d say unintended consequences, but I’m not entirely sure their city government didn’t plan it with that end-goal in mind.

[Be Careful]

Hey, wait a minute! This is not what was supposed to happen!..........I have also read that employees in Seattle want to work only half time so that they won’t lose other benefits, by virtue of making too much money to continue to qualify......

[fidelis]

[fidelis]

[InterceptPoint]

Are they telling us that the Laws of Economics are actually the laws of economics? Particularly that silly one about Supply and Demand.

This completely ignores the economic value of “that good feeling you get in your heart” when you knowingly pay way more for food in a restaurant than it is worth. You get that feeling because that guy at the cash register is getting paid $600 a week. That just feels so good. Worth the money.

But, despite the good feeling, you are probably not going back. There’s this restaurant just outside Seattle that you will be wanting to try out.

[DennisR]

Don’t tell the Seattle liberals. They will just put their fingers in their ears and start repeating “la la la la la...”

On second thought...

The people in that city (of which I am a native) have gone crazy over the last 40-50 years.

[Mastador1]

This is only a surprise to anyone that has never run a business, like 95% of politicians that make these decisions.

[Fungi]

The right mimimum wage: 0.
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/14/opinion/the-right-minimum-wage-0.00.html

[markomalley]

These people voted for this. They got what they wanted. Oh, well.

[Theodore R.]

No matter how many jobs are lost, the people of Seattle will never figure out what happened.

[Politicalkiddo]

Paying homage to their idol of Lenin in the park, I see.

[JohnBrowdie]

How many restaurants have gone out of business?

[Carthego delenda est]

These fools just didn’t raise it high enough! If it was at least $25 an hour none of these problems would be arising.

[cherry]

yeah, but the peoples is happy now that everything is “fair”.....

[visualops]

I tell you what the minimum wage earners will not be prepared for- is THEIR tax increase.

[Yosemitest]

Minimum-wage increase proposals are NOT about minimum wages.
It's about UNION wages (read government employees mostly) and UNION DUES.
Like "Artie" on another thread wrote.

"but my theory is that
this is one of the foundations of single payer.
Down the road, as single payer replaces ObamaCare,
all healthcare workers will become in essence government employees.
Think about how many thousands of new, dues paying union members will magically become part of the SEIU.

Barry had sealed this deal with Andy Stern years ago.
Barry promised Andy and the SEIU thousands of new members,
Andy says
great,
this is the wage structure we need
so we can pay the slush fund.
Gotta pay a living wage to all of the new union members
so dues can be extracted
and kickbacks to the dems can be made.
It’s convoluted
but what dem scheme isn’t,
especially when large sums of cash are involved?"

So read the following:

Union Support Of Minimum Wage Hike Is Self-Interested

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, ... was quick to emphasize that her organization's support of a more-than-twofold increase in the minimum wage was "not about growing unions."

This may be true — but it's also undeniable that such a move would have a profound impact on growing union paychecks, even if those unions don't count a single minimum-wage employee in their ranks.

The fine print can be found in union contracts. Each year, the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) releases a number of union collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).

Unsurprisingly, many CBAs available in the OLMS database LINK union salaries and wage rates to the federal minimum wage. There are a number of methods that unions use to accomplish this end. The two most popular appear to be setting baseline union wages as a percentage above the minimum wage, and mandating a flat wage at a set level above the minimum wage.

One example is a series of CBAs signed with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). Their contracts mandated that
"(w)henever the federal legal minimum wage is increased, minimum wage (in the agreement) shall be increased so that each will be at least fifteen (15%) percent higher than such legal minimum wage."

There's also an SEIU local's contract, which ordered that
"(t)he minimum hourly wage rates shall exceed any statutory applicable minimum wage rate by 50 cents."

Some unions have also arranged contracts where the employer MUST renegotiate their contracts in case of a minimum-wage hike, NO MATTER HOW LONG is left on the pact's life span.

The possibility for abuse here is staggering:
Unions with average wages WELL ABOVE the minimum wage CAN INSERT such clauses into their contracts, FORCING negotiations in industries not otherwise affected by a wage hike.

Given the limited number of CBAs available in the OLMS database, it's impossible to determine just how widespread this practice is.

But at least one union has trumpeted this arrangement as "one of the many advantages of being a union member."

Earlier this year on its blog, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union proudly boasted that "oftentimes, union contracts ARE TRIGGERED TO IMPLEMENT WAGE HIKES IN CASE OF MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES."

This is a stunning admission of SELF-INTERESTt for an organization that's actively PUSHING minimum-wage hikes at both the state and federal levels of government.

It also raises questions about unions' growing use of nonunion "worker centers" like the Restaurant Opportunities Center, OUR Walmart, Fast Food Forward and other organizations that have made headlines in recent months.

These groups advocate many policies that would affect those businesses that pay a minimum wage — restaurants, retailers, etc. — and a minimum-wage hike is often the FIRST demand that these union front groups make. This only casts further suspicion on the motives of the labor unions funding these groups.

No matter how you look at it, the benefits that these unions stand to reap from a minimum-wage hike should raise questions about their real motives — and whether they're only manipulating the debate over fast-food wages for their own benefit.

Berman is the executive director at the Center for Union Facts.

[BobL]

In Texas we use the national minimum wage for tipped service workers of $2.13 per hour. For the workers, either tips, or the employer (or both in combination), has to bring this number up to the ‘normal’ minimum wage of $7.25.

My rule for tipping is to NEVER TIP where the state sets a level higher than the $7.25 per hour, which now includes Washington state, but does not include Texas. Instead, I had very polite business cards made explaining that by not tipping, I am doing them a favor by still going out - as I cannot afford what would otherwise be double-tipping, so as to cover their base wage. We’re usually long gone by the time the employee reads the explanation.

[PIF]

After Boeing nearly closed in the 70s, land and homes were so cheap that the liberal hordes in CA and TX moved to WA were they took over and changed the western part of the state into a liberal paradise or as the rest of the sane world sees it: liberal hell. Now the chickens are roosting in Seattle which was long a very odd place to live - we used to call it the Far Side after the comic strip.

[MasterGunner01]

Hey, you political morons in Seattle — your $15 per hour minimum wage is killing businesses all over the metro area. There go 900 taxpayers (with more to come).

Ah, you say you've thought of a solution?

Right. Raise taxes and fees across the board on the survivors,