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The NYT reports that in a unanimous vote, the Seattle City Council went where no big-city lawmakers have gone before, raising the local minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum, and pushing Seattle to the forefront of urban efforts to address income inequality. "Even before the Great Recession a lot of us have started to have doubt and concern about the basic economic promise that underpins economic life in the United States," says Council Member Sally J. Clark. "Today Seattle answers that challenge." High-tech, fast-growing Seattle, population 634,535, is home to Amazon.com, Zillow, and Starbucks. It also has more than 100,000 workers whose incomes are insufficient to support their families, according to city figures and around 14% of Seattle's population lives below the poverty level. Some business owners have questioned the proposal saying that the city's booming economy is creating an illusion of permanence. "We're living in this bubble of Amazon, but that's not going to go on," says businessman Tom Douglas. "There's going to be some terrific price inflation."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Dunbal on Thursday June 05 2014, @12:10PM
No rich people on the whole don't lose out. They own stock. They have investments. They own businesses. The ones who really lose out are the elderly. Those who are forced to live off savings, pensions and or fixed income. They always lose out.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday June 05 2014, @01:42PM
Indeed. The rich people will get to raise prices to match or exceed inflation, while making sure payroll lags behind inflation.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday June 05 2014, @03:46PM
While having a decent minimum wage is a good idea, it is no substitute for providing conditions which lead to a strong middle-class and social mobility to those with the drive and work-ethic.
What I sense is going on here is that a raised minimum wage will be underhandedly phased in as a permanent replacement of middle-class salaries as the economy goes to shit and the rich get richer.