Ryne Moses Maloney-Risner – University of Washington
Seattle has been receiving national attention for its progressive political culture since the election of socialist candidate Kshama Sawant to the city council in November. The defining issue of the Sawant campaign has been a push to enact a $15 an hour minimum wage for all of Seattle’s workers. While the $15 an hour wage has been endorsed by the mayor, it is still a hotly contested issue, with questions circulating about how to best implement it (if at all), whether there will be exceptions for certain businesses and organizations, and whether the overall impact will be positive for workers and businesses.
The debate around the minimum wage is timely and connected to conversations and tension surrounding growing inequality and gentrification in Seattle. In 2013 Seattle saw the highest rate of rent increases in the nation, and according to the Seattle Times, is second only to Boston for rates of city-wide gentrification. Concerns around highly paid tech industry employees displacing long-time Capitol Hill residents manifested in a demonstration in which protestors blocked the path of a privately operated Microsoft shuttle bus, in an action similar to those in San Francisco which have received national media attention. These debates echo broader discussions of inequality and minimum wage in the United States.
The community group 15 Now has been leading the movement to swiftly adopt a $15 minimum wage, without exceptions, limitations or delays, and has even begun to promote an initiative to bring to ballot in the case that the city council takes too long to produce a proposal. 15 Now is coalition of community activists, nonprofit and grassroots organizations and labor unions which has held rallies and marches that emphasize the relational aspects of unfair wages.
Opposition to the $15 minimum wage has come from business owners and associations whose concerns have been given a voice through many Seattle Times articles and editorials, and other media.
In one corner there is an alliance of community activists fighting to bring something new into being, and in the other business elites and the wealthy pushing back. In essence it is a fight over what is possible and what is deemed as sensible, and who makes that determination. In this way the minimum wage debate in Seattle demonstrates some of the political processes outlined by theorist Jacque Rancière in Ten Thesis on Politics.
The idea of politics as opposed to police is particularly relevant. According to Rancière, police attempts to enforce existing orders, attempts to annul any dissenting opinions, to force a consensus by silencing opposition and therefore “partitions” or defines what is sensible. Politics upset existing orders, creates dissensus, and demonstrates new possibilities beyond or opposed to what has been partitioned as sensible.
In the case of the minimum wage debate, activists proposing the increase are engaging in a politics that challenge long-standing notions of what constitutes a “sensible” wage. Currently that number is $7.25 an hour federally, and $9.32 in Seattle. Activists are claiming that $15 an hour is possible.
Reading through the pages of the Seattle Times articles such as: A do-gooder tells why $15 wage is bad idea and Don’t use brute force to handle a Seattle minimum-wage increase and statements from organizations such as the Broadway Business Association, we see a recurring set of arguments made in opposition to wage increases that seem to flow from “common sense” assertions about the logic of business. Many of the claims repeatedly put forward by business owners seem to imply a sort of economics-based legitimacy, but do not stand up to empirics, or scrutiny:
“Wage increases will hurt small business and cause job loss”
A large body of empirical evidence based in academic and foundational studies suggest that raising minimum wage has little negative impact on businesses or jobs. Cities that have raised minimum wage such as San Francisco continue to experience a healthy if not booming restaurant and small business economy. The dire predictions of shuttered store fronts and unemployment put forward by business associations seem to be more of scare tactic than anything based in facts or deep analysis.
“Prices will go up”
Restaurant owner John Platt, the “do-gooder” described in the Seattle Times article, states that the proposal for $15 an hour is “outlandish” and a “radical step”. As evidence of this the article points out that according to Platt, in order for his restaurant to stay profitable he would have to raise prices by 25 to 30%. This would mean that the $32 pan roasted duck on the menu could end up costing over $40. However, it seems that these predictions of steep price increases related to increasing minimum wage are likely exaggerated, according University of California research. In fact this study concluded that a 33% increase in minimum wage over a three year period would cause a less-than 1% yearly increase in restaurant prices. It seems reasonable, far from outlandish, to assume that the clientele at Platt’s restaurant would be able to afford that cost-hike.
“Minimum wage jobs are entry level positions that should be low paying”
Karsten Betd, a Broadway business owner speaking to Capitol Hill Blog about his opposition to the wage increase states that instead of raising minimum wage “we should focus on better schools and colleges and better education, leading to a more qualified and higher paid workforce. And leave the entry level jobs with the min wage for young people, students, part timers etc.” 15 Now points out that three-quarters of minimum wage workers are older than 20, that 25% are parents, nearly two-thirds are women and that many are college educated. Betd’s statement draws from an unrealistic vision of equal economic opportunity which is deeply embedded in dominate discourses about American capitalism. The statement entirely ignores minimum wage demographics.
If the main points of contention articulated by those against raising the minimum wage are all resting on shaky assumptions and appeals to “common sense”, why is there such fierce debate? What is this fight really about?
In Rancièrian terms this “common sense” deployed again and again by business associations and elites is part of an attempt to build a consensus: one that enforces the idea that it is normal, and indeed beneficial, for workers to be exploited and that those who earn minimum wage “deserve” no more. This consensus privileges a businesses’ right to a profit ahead of the rights of workers to a life free from precarity and poverty. The consensus constructs a world where inequality is sensible.
The fierce campaign to delegitimize and silence claims that a higher minimum wage is possible is an attempt to stop politics. According to Rancière “politics is first and foremost an intervention upon the visible and the sayable.” Actions that bring workers into the street and gather them with allies make visible the daily struggles of the working poor, erodes the notion that everything is fine within the current order, and produces strong political speech that loudly proclaims dissensus. In other words, business elites are afraid of 15 Now. Afraid not because they cannot afford to pay a higher wage, but because the movement entirely disrupts the current order, one in which business owners are powerful and workers powerless. Where the needs of capital triumph over social welfare.
Realizing that wages are just one of many issues tied to inequality and uneven distributions of power emphasizes the importance of alliance building. 15 Now is part of growing coalition of organizations and activists that span and connect through a broad range of issues, and in some cases transcend class barriers. Labor unions have joined forces with immigrants’ rights organizations, university researchers have produced empirical reports and studies that add institutional power to striking minimum wage worker’s claims and demands. This type of powerful grassroots alliance continues to link issues of education, immigration, healthcare, housing and labor, all of which have become increasingly exclusive or precarious under the current order of sensibility. Business elites and opposition know these issues are connected, and if there is a victory for higher wages in Seattle, who knows what could come next?
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