WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Is $9.19 an hour a living wage?

Photo: Q13 Fox News
Photo: Q13 Fox News

Last week, fast food workers in more than 50 cities across the nation walked off the job to protest their low wages. Workers making $7 or $8 per hour protested for $15 per hour wages.

Governor Inslee voiced his support for the striking workers saying that they “bring needed focus to hard working people struggling to share in Washington’s prosperity.”

SeaTac may become the first city in Washington with a $15/hr minimum wage – a living wage.

Voters signed a petition, and there was supposed to be a measure on this ballot this November for voters. But last week a judge threw it out due to some repeat signatures.

At $9.19/hour Washington has one of the highest minimum wages in the country. But is it a living wage?

Seattle restaurateur Tom Douglas voluntarily raised the wages of all his employees to $15/hour beginning this August. On NPR’s Morning Edition he explained that he felt it was his time to give back to so many hard working individuals, and wanted their pay in the food service to reflect the value of the work they do.

But Douglas stopped short of supporting a law that would mandate a living wage, admitting that a law like that would have put him out of business early on. Douglas would rather leave it up to the consumers to stop frequenting businesses that do not fairly compensate their employees.

On a related topic, McDonald’s added a new budget tool to their website to show employees how they could live on their salaries.

One big problem – the budget tool assumes an annual salary of about $24,000 a year, equating to $12.80/hour after taxes – this is far more than the $18,130 salary the average fast food employee makes each year. Also, the McDonald’s budget planner failed to include basic necessities like food and gas and only allotted $20 towards healthcare.

Related information:

NPR: For Restaurant Workers, A Struggle To Put Food On The Table

Washington Post: How the U.S. minimum wage stacks up globally, in charts