Next year Washington’s minimum wage rises from $9.19 an hour to $9.32, once again giving the state the highest minimum wage in the country.
OLYMPIA, Oct. 6.—There really isn’t any surprise about it, but just so you know – Washington will remain Number One next year when the state minimum wage goes up yet again. Might be some drama in 2016, though. California may finally leapfrog the Evergreen State and end Washington’s long reign at the top of the chart.
The state Department of Labor and Industries announced last week that Washington’s minimum wage will rise to $9.32 next year from the current $9.19, the result of a ballot measure passed by Washington voters in 1998. Initiative 688 pegs the Washington minimum wage to the fastest-rising of all the consumer price indexes maintained by the federal government, the index for urban wage-earners and clerical workers. When it goes up 1.4 percent, as it did last year, so does the minimum wage.
And because Washington has been out front since 2004, and no state is challenging Washington for top honors next year, this state wins once again by default. Some municipalities require employers to pay higher minimum wages – San Francisco has the highest citywide minimum wage at $10.17. But in the state-by-state competition, unless inflation skyrockets next year, Washington will lose its first-rank status in 2016. Last week California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would boost the minimum wage in the Golden State from $8 to $10 an hour in 2016.
So we’ll be Number Two. The state’s business community, never keen on the mandatory increases that subtract from the bottom line, probably won’t be whooping it up, though. “I can’t wait to have T-shirts made,” says Patrick Connor of the National Federation of Independent Business.
National Agitation
Washington’s decade at the top makes this year’s announcement a matter of routine, and the arguments are as familiar as the annual press release from L&I. Business groups maintain the annually adjusted minimum wage is another one of the rules that impose high costs in Washington and discourages small businesses from hiring teen-agers. Advocates say the wage ought to be higher — even at $9.32, they say it’s still not a living wage.
The only new element to the story is that next year’s annual increase comes amid national agitation for a big increase to the federal minimum wage. Some 32 states follow the federal minimum wage, which sets a floor at $7.25 an hour. The national AFL-CIO is backing a proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10. Activist organizations and individual unions like the Service Employees International Union have urged a higher figure — $15 an hour – and have staged demonstrations in front of fast-food chain restaurants nationwide. In the city of SeaTac, a $15-an-hour minimum wage measure appears on the ballot next month, making the city the first to decide the issue.
“By itself, a thirteen cent an hour jump doesn’t sound like much,” says Kris Tefft of the Association of Washington Business. “But we look at these things in the context of an increase in workers’ comp taxes also announced for 2014, health care costs likely going up, and the overall cost of regulations affecting business growth. Economic recovery is still slow, and it certainly doesn’t help the competitiveness of our state to constantly lead the nation in some of these key labor costs.”
Washington is one of just 10 states that tie the minimum wage to inflation. Connor notes that the increase in the minimum wage affects more than just those on the bottom rung: Businesses that pay some employees just above the minimum wage will feel pressure to raise salaries for those workers as well. “It unnecessarily inflates wages in the rest of the state, and while that might be nice for somebody who has got a job to make a few more cents an hour, it means there are fewer opportunities for those who are unemployed and certainly lots fewer opportunities for teenagers who are entering the workforce for the first time.”
No Legislation Likely
Kathy Cummings, spokeswoman for the Washington State Labor Council, notes a recent spate of national publicity that came after a McDonald’s in Newport, Wash. was torn down and rebuilt just this side of the Idaho border – even though Idaho follows the federal standard and requires employers to pay just $7.25. Obviously the minimum wage wasn’t the deciding factor, she says. “They didn’t mind paying the higher minimum wage because they knew they would retain their employees,” she says.
The Labor Council, which sponsored I-688, isn’t taking a position on the campaign for a $15 minimum wage, except to say that it supports fast-food workers in their efforts. “They are a testament to what needs to be done throughout the entire country, which is to raise the minimum wage,” Cummings says.
Meanwhile, it appears unlikely that the issue will surface in the form of legislation next year. Washington House Republicans have urged a teen training wage in previous sessions, but in a Democrat-controlled House the proposal has been a nonstarter. In an election year there probably won’t be much appetite to try it again, said state Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee. “I think we’ve run it up the pole enough times to know that it isn’t going anywhere.”
So Condotta, with a sigh, says he pitches in at his wife’s Wenatchee restaurant whenever he can, because the state’s $9-plus minimum wage makes it tough to budget for additional staff. “I think things will just have to get worse before anything happens,” he says. “There’s a lot of resistance to anything in this area. Kids will just have to go unemployed and jobs will have to evaporate to the point where action is necessary. I hate to see it get there, but I know for smaller restaurants it is getting extremely critical.”
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