$15 minimum wage and then what?
Jan 13, 2014, 11:49 AM | Updated: Oct 14, 2024, 9:53 am
Minimum wage supporters hold a demonstration during inaugural events in Seattle. (AP)
(AP)
If activists get their way and minimum wage goes up to $15 per hour, what will they ask for next?
In the wake of the formation of a formal group to push for a $15 minimum wage in Seattle, David Boze is theorizing that this is only the beginning.
At a Sunday rally, 15 Now organizer Phillip Locker said, “We think [the $15 minimum wage proposal] is modest and quite compromising.”
Boze thinks that the $15 wage is so “modest” that it signals the beginning of more liberal and socialist demands – indeed, socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has stated that there are more demands to come.
Sawant pledged to donate $15,000 of her six-figure city council salary to the campaign each year.
There are multiple reasons not to raise the minimum wage, including that it would kill jobs for teens and other unskilled unemployed and poor workers. But most plainly, it would raise prices on goods and services low and middle-class earners need.
Boze said that he spoke with a restaurateur who estimated that a $15 per hour minimum wage would add $6 to the cost of each dish in his eatery.
“Are you more or less likely to go out and enjoy the evening? Odds are, less likely,” he said.
“The other option is they could go out of business because of the increase in labor costs.”
But the most insidious part of the minimum wage push is that it could be the beginning of more socialist policies.
“If you think you’re going to satisfy this crowd by passing a $15 minimum wage, it’s laughable,” he said.
“All you’re doing is whetting the appetite of a monster.”
“15 Now” has planned a second rally for Martin Luther King Day.
