MINIMUM WAGE ADJUSTMENT ENSURES WORKERS DON’T LOSE GROUND AMID CRISIS OF AFFORDABILITY
As greedy corporate leaders drive record inflation, minimum wage boost protects pay floor for lowest-wage workers
The state of Washington and the City of Seattle have announced cost-of-living adjustments to the minimum wage in 2023, ensuring that hundreds of thousands of workers don’t fall even further behind as they face soaring prices for housing, food, and other basics.
Workers organizing with Working Washington led the fight to raise the SeaTac minimum wage in 2013, the Seattle minimum wage in 2014, and the statewide minimum wage via Initiative 1433 in 2016. In each law, workers won automatic annual adjustments tied to inflation.
“Amid high inflation, it’s a good thing workers thought ahead to ensure our nation-leading minimum wage laws include automatic adjustments that keep pace with the rising cost of living,” said Danielle Alvarado, Executive Director of Working Washington. “As greedy corporate CEOS and landlords jack up prices on food, rent, and gas, this adjustment protects workers’ ability to keep up with skyrocketing costs. Anything less amounts to a pay cut for the lowest-paid workers.”
On January 1, 2023, the WA state minimum wage will rise from $14.49/hour to $15.74/hour, the highest of any state in the nation. In Seattle, the 2023 minimum wage will rise from $17.27/hour to $18.69/hour for most workers.
Working people across the state are facing an affordability crisis not seen in decades. This minimum wage adjustment simply protects them from falling even further behind.
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Since the pandemic, landlords in WA have raised rents by 37% in Spokane, 30% in Auburn, 27% in Everett, and 24% in Kent.
Corporate profits have reached the widest margins since 1950. Nationally, in the twelve month period ending August 30, corporate CEOs have raised prices for groceries by 11.4% and for electricity and natural gas by 19.8%, all while taking home multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses for themselves.
A quick review of the outcomes of employer & business lobby predictions about the minimum wage clearly shows that such speculation is more akin to dystopian science fiction than to a high-quality economic forecast. The sky remains firmly aloft.
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Contact Jeffrey Gustaveson: jeffrey@workingwa.org
Working Washington is the voice for workers in our state. Working Washington fast food strikers sparked the fight that won Seattle’s first-in-the-nation $15 minimum wage. Working Washington baristas and fast food workers led the successful campaign for secure scheduling in Seattle, and our members across the state helped drive forward Initiative 1433 to raise the minimum wage and provide paid sick days. We successfully drove Amazon to sever ties with the right-wing lobby group ALEC and improve conditions in their sweatshop warehouses, and got Starbucks to address inequities in their corporate parental leave policy. And we've continued to make history by organizing for the landmark statewide paid family leave law in 2017, winning the groundbreaking Seattle Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in summer 2018, leading the fight to restore overtime protections to salaried workers in 2019, and passing the nation's strongest labor standards for gig workers. For more information, visit workingWA.org.