Preliminary results out of SeaTac in Washington State indicate that a proposed $15.00 minimum wage for a variety of workers associated with the Seattle-Tacoma Airport will pass with a solid majority. The current tally shows 54% in favor. Six thousand workers will get a raise.
In New Jersey, voters overwhelmingly approved a relatively small increase in the minimum wage to $8.25/hr with inflation adjustments, with 61% in favor. Clearly New Jersey voters would have approved a larger increase, albeit by a smaller margin.
One has to go back a long time to find ANY ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage being defeated - back to 1996 in Montana and Missouri.
At least nine subsequent initiatives in various states - in 1998, 2004, and 2006 - were approved by voters, generally by overwhelming margins.
Minimum Wage Ballot Initiative Results. 1998 - 2012.
| State |
Year |
% Yes |
| AZ |
2006 |
65% |
| CO |
2006 |
53% |
| NV |
2006 |
69% |
| MO |
2006 |
76% |
| MT |
2006 |
73% |
| OH |
2006 |
57% |
| FL |
2004 |
71% |
| NV |
2004 |
68% |
| WA |
1998 |
66% |
And yet despite this evidence and the growing inequity in wages, to even propose a minimum wage hike in San Jose, California last year
took a San Jose State sociology class. Then a bunch of students and activists - not established Democrats -
carried the measure through to a wide victory with 59% approval.
Face it. A minimum wage increase will never pass the House of Representatives with its current membership, nor the Senate with its filibuster. And since, for some perhaps-not-unfathomable reason, establishment Democrats in most states are loathe to tick off the Chamber of Commerce and their big donors by even thinking about the issue (California being an exception), that means the way to go should be statewide and local ballot initiatives all over the place in 2014.
We can't survive on $8.25!
If voters are willing to approve statewide minimum wage hikes by huge margins, and even local increases to $15/hr - when the Federal minimum wage is stuck at $7.25 - this should be a signal that a lot more could be achieved. If people only got off their buttasses and did something. Minimum wage increases to $10 should be easily achievable in many locales - in some, like Washington State, to significantly higher levels as has been shown by the SeaTac vote.
Hold the burger, hold the fries, we want wages supersized!
But it's not happening. The ballot initiatives that may or will appear in 2014 are amazingly timid except for a proposed Missouri initiative (which has yet to gather the necessary signatures).
Proposed 2014 Minimum Wage Ballot Initiatives.
| State |
From |
To |
On Ballot? |
| AK |
$7.75 |
$8.75 |
Maybe |
| NM |
$7.50 |
$8.50 |
? |
| SD |
$7.25 |
$8.50 |
Yes |
| MO |
7.35 |
$9.25 |
Maybe |
Increasing the minimum wage would have all sorts of beneficial economic effects, both to individuals and to the nation, and the higher the increase the more beneficial it would be:
- People in low income brackets would have more money, and likely spend almost all of it for basic needs, generating large economic multiplier effects.
- Anxiety and stress caused by poverty wages would decrease.
- Fewer people would have to receive Government support programs like SNAP; those that still did would need fewer benefits. And Obamacare subsidies for people who receive these wage increases would go down. The money saved could be spent on investments and policies for further economic growth.
- People receiving these wage increases would pay higher Social Security and Medicare contributions, increasing the financial viability of these programs.
Everyone (except the one percent) should be fighting for $15/hr as SeaTac did victoriously - and not be willing to settle for paltry $1/hr increases.
