Labor groups push for $15 minimum wage, target Seattle-area airport

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Voters in a working-class Seattle suburb encompassing the region's main airport will soon decide whether to enact one of the country's highest minimum wages for several thousand workers in the area.

The ballot measure that taps into unease over American income inequality goes before voters in the city of SeaTac on November 5. If approved, some 6,300 workers at its namesake airport and nearby hotels, car rental agencies and parking lots would have to be paid at least $15 an hour - more than double the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25.

The wage campaign, funded by labor and community groups, comes during a push for more liveable wages for lower-skilled workers that extends far beyond SeaTac, an ethnic hodgepodge of roughly 28,000 people that was incorporated in 1990.

Washington state already mandates a higher minimum wage than the federal government or any other U.S. state, at $9.19 an hour, although it also has the highest tax burden on the poor.

Nationwide, perhaps the highest wage is mandated by Sonoma, California, which has a minimum hourly rate of $15.38 for city workers and contractors.

Labor groups see the proposed SeaTac wage ordinance as an opportunity to encourage other communities to take similar action.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/06/us-usa-washingtonstate-wage-idUSBRE99506320131006