Seattle's $15 Wage Plan Proves Power of Radical Pressure

‘We made this progress possible… but it is neither strong enough nor fast enough.’

That’s the summarized reaction by progressive activists in Seattle to a proposal by the city’s mayor, Ed Murray, presented to the city council this week that calls for a phased-in minimum wage hike to $15 an hour over four years.

Though the $15 minimum wage would make Seattle’s one of the highest in the country, Kshama Sawant, the outspoken member of the Socialist Alternative party on the City Council and the de facto leader of the city’s $15Now coalition, said she could not support Murray’s plan as written because of its numerous complexities, loopholes, and a slow implementation.

That a proposal to raise the wage this much is even supported by the mayor’s office and business interests in the city, said Sawant, “is a testament to how working people can push back against the status quo of poverty, inequality, and injustice.”

Howeve, while saying the mayor’s proposal was the direct “result of the pressure” from those pushing from below and should be welcomed for that reason, Sawant said that the “unfortunate” reality is that the mayor’s plan “also reflects the attempt of business to water down what the working people of Seattle” have consistently said they want.

“While business has lost the public battle on [having a $15 wage],” she continued, “they were given a seat at the table to pursue their wish list, while low-wage workers were left out.”

On Murray’s plan, The New York Times reports: