How Raising The Minimum Wage To $15 Changed These Workers' Lives

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

SEATAC, Wash. -- In late 2013, voters in this airport town outside Seattle narrowly approved a groundbreaking measure setting a minimum wage of $15 per hour for certain workers. When the new law went into effect a few weeks later, Sammi Babakrkhil got a whopping 57 percent raise.

A valet attendant and shuttle driver at a parking company called MasterPark, Babakrkhil saw his base wage jump from $9.55 per hour, before tips, up to $15. Having scraped by in America since immigrating from Afghanistan 11 years ago, he suddenly faced the pleasant predicament as his co-workers: What to do with the windfall?

For the overworked father of three, it wasn't a hard question. Babakrkhil decided to quit his other full-time job driving shuttles at a hotel down the road. Though he'd take home less money overall, the pay hike at MasterPark would allow him to work 40 hours a week instead of a brutal 80 -- and to actually spend time with his wife and three young girls.

"My kids used to not see me," said Babakrkhil, who notes that the new work arrangement has also afforded him time to start exercising. "Now I make a little bit less, but I'm enjoying my life ... I'm happy this way."


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-raising-the-minimum-wage-to-dollar15-changed-these-workers-lives/ar-AAbuE4W

[AuntPatsy]

1. Good for him but reality check 15 hourly wages still leaves families in poverty but nice Story

[eridani]

2. In Seattle--SeaTac is much cheaper n/t

[eridani]

3. 'The Sky Remains Aloft': Dire Minimum Wage Predictions Proved Wrong

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/04/sky-remains-aloft-dire-minimum-wage-predictions-proved-wrong

One year after Seattle's mayor signed the nation's first citywide $15 minimum wage into law, dire predictions of economic collapse have not come to pass.

In fact, according to Working Washington—the group that launched the fast food strikes that sparked the fight for $15 in Seattle and then helped lead the victorious campaign—many of the very same business owners and others who predicted such devastation "are now hiring and even expanding their business operations in the city."

Consider Andrew Friedman, who owns Liberty Bar in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Working Washington notes that Friedman was one of the most outspoken opponents of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law, and helped lead the Forward Seattle effort to repeal the law. "Your favorite indie shop is out of business if $15 an hour happens," Friedman said in March of 2014. "Local independent businesses WILL close, many of your neighbors WILL be out of work."

Since the minimum wage increase took effect in April, Friedman has opened a second bar in the same neighborhood.

For another example of a Chicken Little prediction, turn to Angela and Ethan Stowell, who own a medium-sized chain of well-regarded Seattle restaurants and "repeatedly predicted grave consequences" for the city's restaurants if the minimum wage rose to $15 an hour. "Local, independent restaurants and retailers will be the ones who are really going to struggle and some will go out of business," Angela Stowell said in June 2014.

However, Ethan Stowell Restaurants recently announced plans to open three new restaurants—all in Seattle—in the year ahead. And last month, Ethan Stowell said: "In the end, I don't think a lot of restaurants will lose a lot of business from [the new minimum wage]. Ultimately it's really good for the industry and I think everyone is going to settle down and the average customer is going to keep going out to eat like they always have. It's a bit of a storm for a little while, but I think people like to go out to dinner and ultimately restaurants and employers and employees will figure out a way that works well for everyone."