The struggle for a $15 minimum wage in the city of Seattle has reached a significant turning point. On May 1, as immigrants and low wage workers marched to demand an end to deportations and higher wages, recently elected Mayor Ed Murray announced a plan to raise the municipal minimum wage to $15 an hour. While this seems like a victory, it is important to read the fine print of the mayor’s proposal and place this proposal in the context of the local struggle for $15.
The $15 minimum wage has been on the front burner in Seattle for the past year, starting with the fast food worker walkouts last spring. At that time, both mainstream candidates for Mayor, incumbent Mike McGinn and challenger Ed Murray, associated themselves with the fast food worker movement and claimed that they would each work to achieve a $15 minimum wage for Seattle.
During the election period, another campaign, that of Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawant for City Council, raised the demand of the $15 wage in conjunction with the ongoing fast food worker organizing. To the surprise of some, Sawant won the election, defeating the incumbent, making her the first socialist member of Seattle’s City Council in many years.
A new non-governmental organization, $15 Now, was launched, with the support of Sawant and her organization as well as some local unions and other progressive organizations, to push forward the struggle for $15. At the same time, the newly elected mayor (incidentally, the first openly gay mayor of Seattle) formed an Income Inequality Advisory Committee to develop a plan to implement a $15 wage. Sawant was appointed to the committee, along with, on the one hand, representatives from some unions and the King County Labor Council and on the other hand, the Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle Restaurant Association and other business interests.
As the IIAC continued its deliberations, big business went on the attack, launching outlandish claims that raising the minimum wage to $15 would hurt small businesses and non-profits. Sawant and $15 Now countered with a proposal to phase in $15 over a three year period for small businesses and non-profits to address this issue.
Tip credit and ‘total compensation’
In addition to phony concern for small business, the voices of big business began to bring up additional issues to muddy the waters. “Total compensation” was one way to confuse matters. Total compensation refers to wages plus benefits. While benefits are necessary and important, workers cannot pay the rent or electricity bill with healthcare benefits, no matter how excellent the plan. Big business wanted to have total compensation taken into consideration when deciding who should get $15.
Tip credit was also brought up as a concept to be folded into a city minimum wage plan. Tip credit is in fact illegal in the state of Washington; tipped workers must receive at least minimum wage, which currently, statewide, is $9.32. Of course, tipped workers often do not work full 8-hour shifts and depend on tips to make up the difference.
The restaurant owners’ association began to organize tipped workers into an “astroturf” organization called “Tips are Wages,” trying to get workers to speak out against raising the wage to $15. This backfired when some of the tipped workers split away from Tips are Wages and began to work instead with $15 Now and the Restaurant Opportunity Center.
$15 Now conference
In a show of strength, $15 Now held a mass national conference attended by 500 people on April 26. About 25 percent of those present came from outside of Seattle; the rest were local activists. At the conference, participants debated and adopted a proposal which described a vision for the struggle for $15; a specific proposal for a Seattle ballot initiative, to be launched in the event that City Council did not adopt an adequate plan to bring wages up to $15 for all workers; and an organizational proposal for a national structure for $15 Now.
The proposal was adopted and $15 Now will be moving towards gathering some 50,000 signatures in order to place a charter amendment on the ballot. At the same time, on May 5, City Council will begin debating the Mayor’s proposal. It is instructive to compare the $15 Now charter amendment proposal with Murray’s proposal that came out of the IIAC and was endorsed by big business as well as some unions.
Comparison of the two plans
Murray’s plan proposes a seven-year phase in for $15. Small businesses, defined as having fewer than 500 employees, locally or nationally, will be allowed to phase in for seven years; in the first five years these “small” businesses will be allowed to count tips and health and other benefits towards the higher minimum wage. For large businesses, (more than 500 workers) $15 would be phased in over a three year period, except for those workers who have health care benefits; for those workers, $15 would be phased in over a four year period.
The $15 Now ballot initiative has a three year phase in for small businesses (defined as fewer than 150 employees) and non-profits, with no tip credit or total compensation factored in. All other businesses would be expected to immediately raise wages to $15 as of Jan. 1, 2015. An exception was made for a collective bargaining opt-out in which specific unions could opt out of $15 in exchange for maintenance of a particular level of health coverage, at the will of the negotiating team.
The collective bargaining opt-out (CBO) was particularly controversial at the April 26 conference. It was pointed out that allowing CBO to include total compensation undermined the overall opposition to using total compensation in calculating the minimum wage. However, the language was kept in after grassroots members of UNITE HERE, who had wanted the CBO language, spoke passionately from the floor in support of CBO. Some voted to support the language of the charter amendment as a whole in order not to slow down the process of moving forward with signature gathering, as the amendment had already been filed with election officials, recognizing that even a $15 minimum wage represents a compromise, given that it is still not even a living wage in Seattle.
It is outrageous for Murray to claim to be on the side of low-wage workers and then allow big businesses to phase in $15 over a three or four year period, when it is perfectly clear that these companies are making massive profits and can afford to pay $15 now. It is more than unfortunate that unions on the IIAC, including the King County Labor Council, voted for the Mayor’s plan; the lone votes against were from Sawant and a business owner; the Chamber of Commerce abstained. Why would unions, representing the interests of their members, vote with representatives of the capitalist class for a watered down measure that will postpone the day that workers in Seattle are able to earn $15?
Union leadership and Democratic Party
One factor that must be taken into consideration is the interdependency of the labor bureaucracy and the Democratic Party. While neither the office of mayor nor city councilmember are considered partisan offices, Murray is a Democrat who was appointed to his first public office as state representative; newly elected councilmember Sawant ran as a self-proclaimed socialist with strong grassroots support; $15 Now is clearly a radical mass organization. When push came to shove, Murray called in his chips and the labor representatives on the IIAC fell in line, isolating Sawant and $15 Now.
The point that needs to be made is that supporting a compromise measure, simply for expediency, is no guarantee that any measure ultimately will be adopted. As the mayor’s compromise proposal goes to the Council, we can expect to hear the voices of business trying to undermine even this compromise.
Even a victorious ballot initiative is no guarantee that the minimum wage will actually be increased; in nearby Sea-Tac, home of Sea-Tac International Airport which is operated by the Port of Seattle, voters passed a $15 initiative in November. The increase is still being held up for airport workers by a court ruling, although it took effect at nearby hotels and parking lots. Low wage airport workers continue to organize.
Under capitalism, the only way that workers can win a living wage is through struggle. Elections are one way to struggle; the outcome of elections are, as Marx once said, a measure of the maturity of the working class. However, reforms voted in through elections can be voted out or overturned later on. Another way to struggle is to organize, unionize and go on strike—withold our labor. This is the most powerful weapon our class possesses under capitalism. Of course, workers’ victories won through organizing and strikes can also be overturned under capitalism; however, the process of mass organizing and struggle strengthens the working class and helps develop revolutionary leaders.
As Sawant has pointed out, it represents a victory for the movement that the mayor and the IIAC felt obligated to put forward any plan to raise the minimum wage to $15. It’s not necessarily wrong to be willing to settle for a less than perfect $15 minimum wage proposal. However, it is wrong to do so in such a way that threatens to short circuit the development of a mass movement against poverty wages.
The struggle is not over; the proposal will be debated in City Council and $15 Now has committed itself to collecting signatures to put a charter amendment on the ballot; a second conference in June will assess the situation and determine whether to go forward with submitting the signatures and launching the initiative campaign. Now is not the time to let up; efforts must be made to reach out and engage the poorest and most oppressed members of our class.
