Today The Seattle Times printed an excellent editorial on the minimum wage debate by former Starbucks president, and WPC supporter, Howard Behar. The editorial offers some common sense perspective from a respected business leader, and admitted “pragmatic progressive,” on the controversial and often polarizing issue.
Behar participated in WPC’s small business panel discussing the minimum wage at WPC’s Solutions Summit earlier this month. Behar warned Seattle’s $15 minimum wage would reduce employment opportunities (especially for young and unskilled workers) by encouraging automation and would increase costs for consumers. His compelling remarks on the issue during the event were featured in a recent column in Forbes magazine.
In his Times editorial, Behar focuses not on whether the minimum wage should be increased, but on the process.
The state Legislature should not follow in Seattle’s footsteps in cutting backroom deals and denying voters the power to approve or reject an increase in the minimum wage. Voters are more than capable of making decisions on such nuanced issues as whether, and how, to increase the minimum wage.
Many lawmakers think because polls show support for a higher minimum wage, they should give up and cut the best deal they can rather than risk voters approving something too extreme. But poll results are fluid and public opinion shifts when an issue is debated.
Initiative 1351 demonstrated how dramatically public opinion can change. Initial polls showed overwhelming support for I-1351. After voters became educated on the class-size issue during debate on the measure, support declined dramatically and I-1351 barely passed.
Just because polls show support for increasing the minimum wage today, that does not mean voters will continue that support after they are exposed to all of the arguments for and against such an increase.
Washington voters determined the state’s current minimum wage back in 1998 when they approved Initiative 688. That measure pushed Washington from the lowest state minimum wage on the West Coast to what is today the highest minimum wage of any state. Voters made that decision after a very public and spirited debate. Why should another significant increase in the state’s minimum wage not deserve the same debate?
The Legislature should trust voters to make an informed decision on whether to increase our state’s minimum wage."
