Posted on 07/27/2017 11:20:03 AM PDT by Jagermonster
SEATTLE—The posters on display at the entrance to her Capitol Hill store say it all: “You are safe here.” “Black Lives Matter.” “Resist Trump: keep America great.”
“I was raised on the most progressive politics,” says Jon (pronounced “Joan”) Milazzo, who co-owns Retrofit Home, a furniture shop on a busy corner of downtown Seattle. A native Vermonter who moved west about 30 years ago, Ms. Milazzo is all for the idea that employees – especially those at the bottom of the pay scale – receive a fair wage for their work.
But she is straining to reconcile her principles with what’s best for her business. Seattle’s 2015 minimum wage ordinance raises hourly pay by 50 cents to a dollar per year until all companies in the city hit $15 by 2021. Milazzo says she’d be happy to comply – if she didn’t also have to contend with soaring property taxes and rental and utility rates. Instead, she’s condensed her store hours and cut entry-level jobs.
“You can’t just say to the little people, ‘Now pay everybody more,’ ” she says. “Where does it come from?”
Seattle, among the first cities to adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage ordinance, has been the setting for a debate over the effects of the policy so far. The dispute centers on two apparently conflicting studies, both released this year. One, from the University of Washington, found that the ordinance significantly reduced average earnings for low-wage workers throughout the city because employment opportunities declined. Another, from the University of California, Berkeley, found that job loss – specifically in the food service industry – was minimal, and that wages indeed rose for workers making the least.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Coverage of the effects of the Seattle minimum wage hike from a variety of different perspectives. I thought it was interesting to see how the Seattle small business owners are reacting to this - even the far left folks admit they feel some pressure.
If she is as “progressive” as she claims, she would just do away that “nasty” profit and hire more of the “little people”....
I lived in the Seattle area for 46 years. I left there about six years ago because of stuff like this. I’m currently in Seattle visiting friends.
It has become a bureaucratic and taxation nightmare in the short time since I left. The stories I’m hearing from friends and others just cause me to thank God for giving me the motivation to get the heck out of this liberal quagmire. But I still feel for the conservatives that have not left yet.
The liberals, on the other hand, need to wallow in the swill they have created. Some will learn from it.
Too bad. It’s a pretty place.
WTF?
If I had a business in Seattle that required any significant number of employees, I would immediate flee Seattle to an unregulated low/no-business-tax state.
Sure you can if you are a Leftist Politician in a securely Leftist city.
I would just like to know where city leaders get this power to dictate what employers must pay their employees. Where does this power originate?
Do they also have the power to dictate maximum compensation?
What other magical powers do these elected Lords of Business possess?
> If she is as “progressive” as she claims, she would just do away that “nasty” profit and hire more of the “little people”.... <
Better yet, she should sign over her ownership of the store to her employees. Now, that would be progressive! Turn the store into a mini socialist paradise.
There is no doubt which side of the debate the Christian Science Monitor is on.
D@mn capitalist - she should know that she didn't "build that business", and to consider it "hers" is a slap in the face to her workers, without whom the store wouldn't exist.
(do I really need to add the tag? OK, I'd better...)
/s
> says Jon (pronounced “Joan”) WTF? <
That’s actually not so unusual these days. Take, for example, the name “Hillary”. It can be pronounced “Hih-luh-ree.” Or it can be pronounced “Corrupt-crazy-lady”.
How “progressive” of a dyed in the wool liberal to use the term “little people”...ROFL
The worst part is, she’ll probably close shop, move to a red state, re-open shop, and then start voting to turn that city/state into another commie hell-hole...
sigh...
It’s called an occupancy license. The city has the final say to grant or deny. One of the requirements may be adhereing to the city’s mandated minimum wage. The choice is yours. Want the business in Seattle city limits, pay the wage or no occupancy license. I don’t support the rate, but that’s how they probably do it.
““You can’t just say to the little people, ‘Now pay everybody more,’ ” she says. “Where does it come from?””
Why, from the magical money trees. Where else?
I say she’s a Kulak and I say she should be liquidated.
““Where does it come from?””
The left always want to exempt itself from the consequences of their own actions.
“Where does it come from?” Yep, that is a great question - you think long and hard on that one before you next sign-on to some leftists idea...
Yes the can MANDATE you pay nn unafordable MINIMUM wage, even if your business can’t carry it.
However, they CANNoT “mandate” that you must stay/remain in business. Thus the business district becomes a sea of “FOR RENT” signs.
Then town hall discovers the TRUE minimum wage is NOTHING.
“I say she’s a Kulak and I say she should be liquidated.”
Yep, she might start to actually think - and then cause trouble. The only way to save herself is to “give” the business to her workers.
Sounds like extortion to me.
“Then town hall discovers the TRUE minimum wage is NOTHING.”
Here is a thought - tie the salaries of the town’s board members to the towns “GDP”. That’ll make ‘em think twice about enacting policies that could adversely affect their own bottom line...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.