Washington
Related: About this forumBusiness group: Overturn Seattle’s $15-an-hour minimum wage
Lots of luck getting Seattle's voters to agree with this.
A self-identified independent business group called Forward Seattle said Thursday it is is filing a charter amendment that would overturn Seattles new, phased in $15-an-hour minimum wage, and replace it with a five-year phase in of a $12.50 an hour minimum wage.
We believe voters must have the option of $12.50 in five years on the ballot this November. Donate now, said the groups website, which does not list endorsers or supporters.
Mayor Ed Murray, seeing the groups news release, voiced confidence that Seattle voters will back the plan unanimously adopted Monday by the Seattle City Council and that he signed into law a day later.
I think a reasonable, modest proposal that raises the minimum wage to $15 an hour is what our voters will support, Murray said in an interview. I believe it is unfortunate if we go to the ballot. Both business and labor should be helping employees and building jobs.
If we go through this battle, though, we go through this battle, Murray added. We are a Western city. We have provisions for initiatives and referendums.
Murray voiced surprise at the Forward Seattle proposal.
We heard from the restaurant association, we heard from the business groups, that they wouldnt do this, Murray said. We worked hard with the business community. A good segment felt this was the best approach, even though they were not excited about it.
The fact that we went to a long phase-in up to seven years for some small businesses was a compromise. Counting tips in restaurants was a huge compromise on the part of labor. So was the inclusion of benefits received by workers.
The Forward Seattle proposal would repeal a key element of the $15 plan, a three-year phase in for businesses employing more than 500 people, and a far more gradual approach of up to seven years for small businesses, particularly restaurants owned by immigrant families.
The charter amendment would put McDonalds and Burger King on an even playing field with mom-and-pop businesses.
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http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2014/06/05/business-group-overturn-seattles-15-an-hour-minimum-wage/#23925101=0
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)Seattle's economy is booming. Unemployment is "relatively" low. They have a lot going for them.
Viva_Daddy
(785 posts)Skink
(10,122 posts)sgtbenobo
(327 posts)King County GOP Smooth Operator Glenn Avery.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)eridani
(51,907 posts)--Violates Their Free Speech
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/315-19/24218-industry-group-files-lawsuit-seeking-to-kill-seattles-minimum-wage-claiming-it-violates-their-free-speech
Last week, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (D) signed a bill that will eventually raise his citys minimum wage to $15 an hour. It took eight days for a lobbying group representing major employers like McDonalds and Taco Bell to file a lawsuit asking the courts to repeal the legislation.
In a sensible world, this lawsuit would have no chance of prevailing. Many of its claims are frivolous and comically so. The lobbying group argues, for example, that Seattles new minimum wage violates the First Amendment because by increasing the labor costs of franchisees, the Ordinance will reduce the ability of franchisees to dedicate funding to the promotion of their businesses and brands. In other words, the law requires businesses to spend money paying workers a living wage that they could otherwise spend on advertising, and this somehow violates the Constitutions guarantee of free speech. If this were actually what the Constitution required, then any law imposing costs on anyone would be unconstitutional, including all taxes. After all, every dollar paid in taxes is a dollar that cant be spent to buy an ad promoting the deliciousness of the Big Mac.
The crux of the lawsuit, however, is rooted in the way Seattles minimum wage ordinance treats franchised businesses as opposed to other employers. The ordinance contains two different schedules for large and small businesses that phase in the higher minimum wage at a different pace. Many large businesses, defined as all employers that employ more than 500 employees in the United States, are required to pay a $15 minimum wage by 2017, while smaller businesses do not not reach this milestone until 2021. Franchises, such as an individual McDonalds restaurant, are treated as part of the larger company. So, because McDonalds as a whole employs over 500 employees, each individual McDonalds franchise is also subject to the same schedule that applies to large employers.
The lawsuit primarily objects to this decision to classify individual McDonalds restaurants and other franchises as part of the whole, and it offers several legal challenges to this classification that can generously be described as imaginative. It argues for example, that, by treating franchisees of out-of-state companies like McDonalds differently than mom-and-pop hamburger shops, the Seattle law violates a constitutional doctrine prohibiting states from discriminating against out of state businesses. This argument would have merit if franchisees of in-state companies like, say, Starbucks were treated differently under the minimum wage ordinance than McDonalds franchisees. They arent. This claim has no merit.