Hyperbole and Fear--Two invisible – but very real – opponents of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage

http://www.eoionline.org/blog/two-invisible-but-very-real-opponents-of-seattles-15-minimum-wage/

Deflating the hyperbole is (relatively) easy, given there’s lots of data to support the premise that raising the minimum wage is a net positive for worker income, business activity and the economy overall. CNNMoney recently analyzed figures from payroll processor Paychex and found that “in Washington state, small businesses are adding jobs faster than any other state in the country… It’s also the state where minimum wage, at $9.32 per hour, is the highest.”

But fear is a different matter, because in some ways it is impervious to facts and figures. To deal with that, we need to listen to people who have overcome it – people like Makini Howell, owner of Plum Restaurants in Seattle and a leader with the Main Street Alliance:

“Raising the minimum wage and establishing paid sick days standards are economy-boosting policies. I expanded my business and created more jobs after Seattle’s paid sick days law went into effect. I’ll do the same after we pass the Mayor’s $15 minimum wage plan. No, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling. The economy grows from the bottom up, not the top down.”

Makini has her finger on an important point. A poverty-generating business (one that pays its workers too little to live on) actually depends on other businesses that *do* pay workers a living wage for customers. Think about what would happen if every business paid their employees poverty-level wages: our economy would dry up and blow away, because people would have so little money in their pockets. (Poverty-generating businesses are also subsidized by tax dollars, but that’s another story.)