The Seattle City Council is once again considering taking action on the $15 minimum wage—it’s become an obsession of sorts for certain councilmembers. The Council will most likely add an additional $2 million to Mayor Ed Murray’s 2015 and 2016 budget in order to “boost the pay of all city employees to at least $15 an hour immediately, rather than on the same timeline as private-sector workers.”
Of course, Councilmember Kshama Sawant—joined by colleagues Mike O’Brien and Jean Godden—is demanding the change. If Sawant is successful—and usually, for some inconceivable reason, she is—the City of Seattle will no longer have a three-year grace period to raise employee wages to at least $15 per hour as decided by Murray’s ordinance in June.
Sawant claims that the cost of implementing an immediate $15 minimum wage immediately would be $1 million in 2015 and $750,000 in 2016. Apparently, in Seattle, immediate gratification is an appropriate reason to soak up taxpayer resources.
