Over the past year, there has been a growing faction in Seattle that believes the minimum wage should be higher — much higher. The amount is $15/hour, a 60% increase from Washington State’s current $9.19 (which is already the highest state minimum wage in the nation). The “instigator” is Kshama Sawant, an economics professor at Seattle Central Community College, and a Socialist Alternative politician who is now a member of the Seattle City Council. Once a niche movement, the campaign for $15/hour has taken on a life of its own. Even Mayor Ed Murray has pledged support for phasing in a higher minimum wage.
Whenever you propose to increase the minimum wage, someone will cry foul. Local perennial candidate Goodspaceguy frequently opines about the “job destroying minimum wage”. Closer to Earth, small business owners fear that a higher minimum wage will make it harder for them to stay in business. Do these criticisms have merit? Can we really legislate our way to a living wage? And why should urbanists care one way or the other?
Everyone deserves a place to live
In some ways, life has become cheaper over the past 100 years. In other ways, it has become more expensive. In 1900, the average household spent 57% of their income on food (43%) and clothing (14%), and 23% on housing. In 2003, 17% went to food and clothing, and 33% to housing. A century ago, if a household needed to save money, they would probably figure out a way to consume less food. Today, such a household would be forced to move to a cheaper home.
Compounding the issue, the average household today spends much more money on motorized transportation than the average household did 100 years ago. On a per-mile basis, motorized transportation is cheaper than it has ever been. But over the past century, urban design has significantly increased the number of miles that the average person must travel to go about their life. Commutes, errands, and leisure trips are longer than they have ever been. If a worker must own a car to get to her job, then she has less money still to spend on housing.
Low-income households spend more of what they earn
As income goes up, so does consumption. But consumption does not increase as quickly as income. At the lowest levels of income, people spend all of their income on basic life necessities. As income goes up, people will shift some spending towards luxury goods. At the highest levels of income, people save or invest the vast majority of what they earn.
Saving and investment are vitally important for the success of our national economy. But buying a portfolio of stocks and bonds will not do anything for the city you live in. Urban shops and cafes and restaurants rely on consumer spending to stay afloat. If workers earn more money, then they will have more money to spend at those local businesses.
There’s more than 40 hours in a week
What do you do if you earn $9.19/hour and your rent is $500/month? You get a second job to pay the bills. Someone who works 80 hours a week isn’t going to have time to do anything other than work or sleep. But a $15/hour minimum wage is high enough to allow most people to support themselves without working more than 40 hours a week. There are all sorts of things that someone could do with their free time that would make our city stronger. They could attend public hearings, or community councils, or design reviews for new development. They could gather signatures for a new ballot initiative. Or they could simply go to cafes and bars and restaurants and retail stores, and by patronizing these establishments, support their continued existence. A city can’t just be a place to work and sleep; it needs to be a place to play, too.
The environment will thank us
It’s a cruel irony of our time that the cheapest homes are the ones that require the longest commutes. Suppose that a poor household lives in an exurb, commuting 50 round-trip miles to work each weekday. A higher income might allow this household to move closer to work. Eventually, the household might even move to the city and ditch their car entirely. Either way, the less that a household drives, the less carbon they emit into the atmosphere.
Small businesses don’t have to suffer
Many small businesses have expressed opposition to raising the minimum wage, fearing that higher salaries will force them to cut jobs. However, this is only one way to handle a salary increase. Businesses can also choose to raise prices. Since most businesses have customers at a variety of income levels, using higher prices to pay for a minimum wage increase is effectively a redistribution from high-income households to low-income ones — exactly what the minimum wage is intended to accomplish.
It’s important to remember that businesses will have more customers and more sales with a higher minimum wage. Payroll expenses do not disappear; workers use their earnings to buy goods and services, often from the very same businesses that are worried about being able to pay their employees.
Even if some businesses have to cut jobs so that they can afford payroll, the benefits for the remaining workers would make this change worthwhile. A recent survey of economists found widespread agreement that a federal minimum wage increase would be a desirable policy, since any job losses would be more than outweighed by the gains for people who are still able to find jobs.
Conclusion
The $15/hour minimum wage isn’t just good politics; it’s good urbanism. I urge you to support the 15 Now campaign in any way that you can.
Aleksandra (Aleks) is a software engineer who moonlights as a writer and copy editor. Aleks's love of cities started as a child, when she would ride the commuter rail into Boston with her family for day trips. Her mission is to share that love with the world, by ensuring that our cities have a place for everyone. Aleks primarily writes about transportation and land use. She is also the webmaster.