Seattle pushing back on the $15 minimum wage

Hotair ^ | 07/05/2014 | Jazz Shaw

[SeekAndFind]

When Seattle passed their new city council ordinance mandating a staged increase in the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, many local businesses – as well as observers across the nation – were left shaking their heads. The rules seemed to be unevenly applied, with some businesses having to comply but not others, as well has having a complete disregard for whether or not the job providing entities would be able to remain competitive and survive under the new rules. As Reuters reports, a coalition of business owners are now moving to exercise the power of public support to put the brakes on this thing before it goes off the tracks entirely.

Forward Seattle, which represents restaurants, retailers and other businesses, handed in just under 20,000 signatures to the Seattle City Clerk on Wednesday, more than the 16,510 needed to qualify for the November ballot, said group co-chair Angela Cough.

The proposal would ask Seattle voters to repeal a $15 minimum wage increase that was approved by a unanimous vote of the City Council last month and signed by Mayor Ed Murray. It is scheduled to go into effect over several years.

The move by city leaders marked the first time a major U.S. city has committed to such a high base level of pay. Seattle is among several cities leading the way in a national push by Democrats to raise minimum wages, and the plan in the Pacific Northwest city has drawn criticism from business groups.

Over at The American Thinker, Rick Moran asks a few pointed questions which the city council might want to consider.

Many voters believe all businesses are rich and don’t pay their employees $15 an hour because they’re greedy.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Minimum wage is an absolute joke being that they will hire illegals for a fraction of that. I remember in the 70s when I was in High school it was tough to get a job, I can’t even imagine what it’s like now. “Can you work for $3 bucks an hour? Well then get lost. I’ll hire Juan”

[Blood of Tyrants]

Liberals don’t live in reality. They truly believe that you can double the current legal minimum wage with no ill effects at all. This is a result of static thinking.

[Hoodat]

The rules seemed to be unevenly applied, with some businesses having to comply but not others . . .

Democrats - Opposing Equal Protection since 1828.

[JRandomFreeper]

The real minimum wage is zero dollars.

/johnny

[From The Deer Stand]

The government has NO business telling any employer what the must pay their employees.

[musicman]

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[Leo Carpathian]

Communist governments start with taxing people.
Can’t pay? They will take your property, business away and they will “manage” it to destruction.
Then everybody will be even, “distributed”.
See shining example of Soviet Union, Cuba, N. Korea, Venezuela, NYC

What do not people get???

[tcrlaf]

“The rules seemed to be unevenly applied, with some businesses having to comply but not others”

Compliance to be determined by the level of “Donations” to SEIU groups and the “right” Democrats, of course.

Just like Chicago...

[the OlLine Rebel]

And that is one of the lynchpins of this MW issue. Republicans need to hammer on this.

Eliminate MW and the illegal alien Mexican problem dries up.

[MaxMax]

A HUGE majority of Seattle residents voted NO on raising Cig taxes and told the
Politicians to manage the money better. They passed it anyway and ignored the Vote.

Expect the same with WA's track record and a Communist in charge.

[SkyDancer]

Fifteen dollars minimum wage? Well here's what will be the answer to that:

[Fai Mao]

In Hong Kong there is a resturuant chain called Eat East. Everything they do is frozen and microwaved like a TV dinner.

They have a wide menu with all sorts of dishes like Spaghetti, sandwiches and curry. There is only one employee in the store.

It is good stuff, better than McDonald's and cheaper too. That is what you get with a high minimum wage. One job not 25 http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=22698&tc=sr1&con=phto

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

This is all too funny and a good example of why I left that leftist hell hole.

I remember back when they proposed a ‘luxury coffee’ tax. All those good liberals protested it and had signs in their cafe windows urging people to call their reps and demand they not pass it.

They said the tax of what is really peanuts compared to the minimum-wage tax would hurt their business.

No kidding.

Now they elected the same socialist scumbags (no different than those in the DemocRat party) who put this minimum-wage garbage through.

Brilliant.

[expat1000]

High-tech jobs may be moving overseas, but one low-tech job Americans could always fall back on was flipping burgers at McDonald's.
But that could change in the not-too-distant future. Later this year, a Chicago-area McDonald's restaurant will fry up hamburgers with an automated grill that dispenses patties directly onto the griddle from a separate freezer compartment, reducing labor and promising fresher sandwiches.
[...] McDonald's Corp. is also experimenting with automation to increase the amount of french fries it can produce during the busy lunch rush. Electronic kiosks that let customers key in their own orders have already moved beyond the lab into actual restaurants in two markets, and will be evaluated for broader use at year-end

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/80304

[kingu]

You want those plastic bag bans gone? The reason why so many businesses are standing up against Seattle is that it is going to hit them in the pocketbook. Make the same situation happen with the bag bans. ‘You won’t bag my purchase for free? I’ll go somewhere else, and you can restock your shelves. You’ll lose a sale and you’ve got annoyed customers in line delayed, and staff doing extra work.

Even in the People’s Republics of Santa Monica and Pasadena, I’ve had managers time and time again hand over bags rather than lose the sale and lose the time and effort. You are the consumer, they want to sell you things, and if you want to make a condition of sale that is ‘illegal’, they will eventually move to get that law reversed.

Yep, a thousand bags is under $20 delivered from your local office supply store or Amazon. Sure, you can lug around dirty bags and put fresh food in it. Or you can actually take a stand and say ‘no.’

[Rainier1789]

Growing up in the 70’s I had some nice low-wage jobs:
Municipal Arena usher - the kind of job people would pay to do. See the event, meet people, take friends. Had to join a union though, to take dues and make sure I didn’t do anything that was someone else’s job.

Night attendant - some cleanup and organizing, take the rare call or delivery, but mostly sit & study or read (today I’d be on smartphone/tablet).

You apply for the job, know the terms, and are happy to get it. Do a good job, get promoted or at least references and networks. If you’re happily working for a low-margin employer, why should Obama or anyone say “If you like your job, you can’t keep your job!”

[jonrick46]

The hamburger building machine brought to you by Momentum:

[jonrick46]

Automation by Momentum will "democratize access to high quality food making it available to the masses."

[Othniel]

I know people in Seattle. There is a burger chain called 'Dicks', and it has food that is in the same league as In N Out. Dicks makes it a practice to hire high school and college students. Giving back to the community, so to speak. Upshot is, the owner of Dicks wrote to the paper and did interviews to the effect that he would have to shut down if the higher minimum wage went through because he couldn't afford to run his business anymore. But the A$$holes in charge don't care; they want to make it a liberal utopia where everyone makes tons of bucks, the thousands of homeless are given everything, and everybody wears bike helmets.Morons, all.