Dive Brief:
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If the Seattle experience so far is any indication, the $15 an hour wage move is working out ... with come caveats.
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The Seattle Times reports that the Emerald City's labor market is on the rise since it took the lead among major cities and passed a law setting its minimum wage on a path to $15 per hour. For example, Seattle's job-growth rate has tripled the national average since April 15, when the minimum law wage went into effect.
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The caveat is much of the city's success, the Times reports, may be driven by trends different than the minimum-wage law itself – including tech sector and construction growth, according to a new report from the University of Washington.
Dive Insight:
Seattle's layered law will take the minimum wage from $10-$11 when first enacted to $15 in 2021.
The good news in the research is that while the law itself may not be a prime reason for the city's rising economic state, it did raise wages for the lowest paid workers and had little negative impact on business failure rates. Working Washington, a worker advocacy group, sent an email to the Seattle Times Monday saying how the minimum-wage law’s “Chicken Little” critics, who predicted the sky would fall on Seattle’s economy, have been proven wrong.
When the law was passed, many Seattle employers said they’d raise prices but the UW research found that didn't happen, either.
While Seattle's experience may not happen in every city or state raising their minimum wages, it is the first evidence that employers who are affected may not suffer as much as they believed they would. And it seems those laws are already having an impact, even where there are no mandates for a minimum wage raise.
