Our Voice: Voters might have input on state’s minimum wage

Washington voters may well have the say in the amount of our state’s minimum wage thanks to a ballot measure filed last week.

“Raise Up Washington,” the group backing the initiative, wants to see our state’s minimum wage raised to $13.50 by 2020. They’ll have until July to gather the 250,000 signatures required to qualify for the November ballot.

Washington has historically had one of the highest minimum wages in the nation since voters passed an initiative in 1998 tying the rate to the Consumer Price Index for the previous year. It’s evaluated and adjusted — if merited by the rate of inflation — annually.

Our state has had the highest minimum wage pay in the nation until recently, with five states now paying more. Washington’s rate for 2016 is $9.47. Massachusets, Connecticut, Vermont, Alaska and California all have wages that are higher this year, ranging from $9.60 to $10. Our nation’s capital pays $10.50, and that goes up $1 on July 1.

Many of those states already paying higher minimum wages have incremental increases scheduled as well. And that’s what the initiative proposed here would do as well, increasing to $11 in 2017, $11.50 in 2018, $12 in 2019 and $13.50 in 2020.

The initiative would also provide sick leave to those who do not have it.

And that all sounds like great news for the minimum wage earners. But minimum wage is a tricky business. While it may seem well and good to pay those earning low wages more per hour, the business owners required to pay them will be impacted.

Mostly likely tough decisions would be made by business to offset the costs of mandated wage increases, whether that be fewer hours for an employee or increased use of technology to eliminate labor costs altogether.

With Washington already on a program to evaluate the minimum wage each year and adjust for inflation, business owners already had to adapt.

On the west side of the state where individual jurisdictions are starting to impose mandatory living wages at a higher rate of $15, businesses have taken different strategies. Several high-profile restaurants have discontinued tipping and increased prices.

The city of SeaTac has seen a push back from employers based at the airport there since Proposition 1 increased the minimum wage there for transportation and hospitality workers to $15 an hour. Alaska Airlines, the Washington Restaurant Association, Filo Foods and BF Foods filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s power to set wages at the Port of Seattle-owned SeaTac Airport.

Alaska Airlines is challenging the state Supreme Court decision, largely in part because it says the requirement puts it a competitive disadvantage with its prime rival Delta Airlines. The majority of Alaska’s workers are based at SeaTac and Delta’s are not.

It’s just one of the examples of how Washington could continue to lose business. A high minimum wage is a deterrent to attract new business to the state. Economic development is key to a successful business climate.

We understand that people need to make a living, one that can sustain them adequately. But minimum wage is just that. Minimum. It’s a starter pay and something meant as a launching pad for a more ambitious future, not a lifelong satisfactory income.

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Our Voice: Voters might have input on state’s minimum wage."