Seattle's $15 minimum wage: Buyer's remorse before the sale
Even as it was being announced and celebrated by some members of his income inequality committee, the political leaders acknowledged the Seattle mayor’s $15 minimum wage proposal would undergo tweaking before it was adopted by the city council. Remember Councilmember Nick Licata’s comments about legislators liking to get their “fingerprints” on such things. There’s been […]
30th of April 2014
Minimum wage, maximum hassle. Uncompromising activists threaten to take $15 to November ballot.
My column today’s looks at the ongoing wrangling in Seattle City Hall over how to get to a $15 minimum wage. What Seattle does matters statewide. So far, no one has devised a containment strategy to prevent Seattle politics from spreading. It’s not Vegas. What happens in Seattle doesn’t stay in Seattle. …Here’s what’s clear: […]
25th of April 2014
No recommendation from Seattle mayor on how to get to $15 minimum wage. Yet.
Yesterday’s press conference (video) had Seattle Mayor Ed Murray explaining why he was not announcing his proposal for a $15 minimum wage. Here’s how Publicola characterized it. At a press briefing this afternoon—the official press release read, “Mayor Murray to announce his proposal for raising the minimum wage in Seattle”—Mayor Ed Murray did not announce […]
23rd of April 2014
Review roundup: Some contrarian take's on Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century"
I’ve not read the book. Yet. But I’ve enjoyed reading the reviews of Thomas Piketty’s controversial, celebrated, and widely cited book on income inequality, capital and labor. Here are a few for you. Robert J. Samuelson in the Washington Post: Though Piketty is an economist, his book is essentially a work of political science. He […]
Mobility math: 12 Percent of Americans can count on being in the 1 Percent
Static formulations aside, there’s some good news about social and economic mobility. An article in the New York Times by social welfare professor Mark Rank lays it out: The picture drawn of the 1 percent has been that of a static population, just as the 99 percent is often portrayed as unchanging. But, he writes: […]
7th of April 2014
NYT looks at Seattle minimum wage, plus some inconvenient facts on possible impacts
The New York Times uses Seattle’s $15 minimum wage initiative (small “I” so far) to highlight efforts across the country to combat income inequality by raising the wage floor. The story by Annie Lowrey leads by citing the travails of a low-wage worker whose hours have been cut back. By now, we’re accustomed to such tales […]
3rd of April 2014
Amid a flurry of minimum wage actions across the country, Seattle's proposed $15 floor stands alone
The New York Times reports on the presidential push for a higher federal minimum wage. While this Congress is unlikely to approve it, the White House claims credit for the emergence of state and local actions to raise the minimum. In the last 14 months, since Mr. Obama first called for the wage increase in […]
28th of March 2014
Complete lack of balance at Mayor Murray's Income Inequality Symposium
Yesterday, Kriss and I attended Seattle mayor Ed Murray’s Income Inequality Symposium at Seattle University. This was no balanced discussion of the potential impacts of increasing the minimum wage in Seattle to $15; instead, everyone involved seemed to have agreed ahead of time on the goodness of significantly increasing the minimum wage. All that’s left […]
Income Inequality Symposium: Trade-offs? What Trade-offs?
(Previous posts on the symposium are here, here, here and here.) At the same time as the panel I discussed in the last post, there was one that was held in another building, in a room with limited seating, titled “Strategies for investing in workers.” This was moderated by Maud Daudon of the Seattle Metropolitan […]
Income Inequality Symposium: Those alien business people
(Previous posts on the symposium are here, here and here.) In the afternoon, there were two breakout sessions that occurred at the same time. The one I attended was titled “How have other cities addressed income inequality? Views from experts and elected officials from cities across the U.S.” It was moderated by Eric Liu, who […]