The effort to raise the minimum wage in Seattle by a staggering 60 percent – from the current $9.32 an hour to $15 an hour – over the next several years is being challenged by a local business group, Forward Seattle, which represents a number of restaurants, retail outlets and other businesses in the Seattle area.
Passed by the City Council and signed into law by Mayor Ed Murray, the minimum wage hike was never voted on by Seattle residents. The proposal has since garnered its fair share of criticism from the Seattle business community. Forward Seattle, by handing in “just under 20,000 signatures to the Seattle City Clerk” last week, is seeking to put the matter up to a vote – and it’s looking like that’s exactly what will happen in November.
Citing concerns that the measure would encourage businesses to “move from Seattle or halt expansions,” Forward Seattle co-chair Angela Cough said, “Right now, the (city) ordinance on the table we think is going to be pretty damaging to the city from the business perspective, and from the workers’ perspective.”
Cough certainly has good reason to think a forced minimum wage hike would be bad for Seattle businesses and workers. As we’ve previously mentioned, even a smaller minimum wage hike than what Seattle has planned could force business owners to freeze hiring, lay off employees or even shutter operations.
This isn’t even the only attempt to stop the disastrous wage hike plan in Seattle. Separately, the International Franchise Association also “filed a federal lawsuit last month that alleges the measure illegally discriminates against franchises because it would force them to pay employees $15 an hour within three years while other business owners would have more time.”
Now that it appears Forward Seattle has submitted more than enough signatures required to put forth a ballot measure repealing the minimum wage hike, it will be interesting to see how voters respond in November.
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