By 2022? That’s a long way away.
I agree, but I understand why increasing the minimum wage by 50% overnight was a no-go.
This is state-wide, isn’t it?
Looks like NYC is moving quicker (although not as quickly as Seattle), same for SF, LA etc?
WA state needs to catch up with Seattle.
Wage parity with the 1970s, a mere 50 years later?
Yes, but making it incremental was the only way to make this work. My only concern is for workers who live in higher costs-of-living areas of the state. $15 an hour goes a lot further in most parts (if not all parts) of Tulare, Fresno, Kern counties than in Bay Area and SoCal counties.
Paying people a living wage isn’t an easy sell. It’s not like we’re talking about war
Yes, many cities have already established higher minimum wages than those required by the state. The minimum wage in San Francisco is $12.25/hr and will be $15/hr by 2018. Which should just about cover the cost of commuting across the bay, where minimum-wage workers will be able to find more affordable cardboard boxes to sleep in.
(Come on Brown, what goobers are you listening to?)
Unless he was referring to a guaranteed minimum income? The idea has been interpreted differently by people on the right and left, but some who argue for it suggest it would replace a minimum wage.
Surprised Congress hasn’t tried to outlaw this. Many states have forbidden cities to impose a local minimum wage, because it is bad if workers aren’t eligible for food stamps. Or something.
According to inflation calculators, $10 now will be worth $12 in 2022. So it makes it actually a smaller percentage increase than it seems. While it keeps up with inflation, everything else will inflate as well. I am NOT opposed to minimum wage increases. It just always disheartening when i hear these future projected dates. then the next guy gets into office and tries to undo what the previous guy did.
Anyhow, that .50/hr * 40 hrs a week is an additional $20 in someone’s paycheck. It’s a token reward. I understand it’s useful.
But goddamn.
Right? FFS, this is practically meaningless. A faster rise would benefit local economies, since the earners pump it all right back into purchases. Raise it faster!!
Oh No!! The wages for the slaves…um I mean workers are going up! Here’s how I imagine a ‘True Patriot! Murcian! Republican!’ sees it:
This country is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes… The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
Yes it’s borrowed from something…
Has anyone heard if Social Security and Disability will be raised as well to combat the rampant inflation this is going to cause? I remember back in the '80s of rumors about senior citizens having to eat pet food and would like to avoid a similar scenario…
“Raising the minimum wage will cause harmful inflation!” has long been an excuse for keeping working-class people down, but it’s actually wages at the TOP that have been ballooning out of control for the last couple of decades. For some reason “CEO pay raises will cause harmful inflation!” never seems to get the same play.
No way that will happen. Have you seen what pet food costs these days?
Assuming a place like San Francisco is roughly comparable, cost-of-living-wise, to Vancouver, a back of the envelope calculation suggests that six years from now the minimum wage there will have caught up to the living wage of six years ago…
That’s a very poor assumption, at least if this online cost-of-living calculator is anywhere near the mark.
I thought it might be, thanks (it’s just another very expensive place where I happen to know the rough living wage). Makes the point stronger though don’t you think?
A fortiori and all that…
It seems to me that each state, possibly even certain cities, should have customized minimum wages. The cost of living in CA or Ny is soooo much higher than where I live. $15 is considered decent work around here, not just bare minimum.
