A Brighter Future for Renton is on the Ballot

Renton may bring its minimum wage in line with surrounding cities, giving a much needed raise to over 20,000 people. But big corporate money is striking back.

Seattle’s sister city, just to the south, suffers from a minimum wage that lags behind its neighbors. At 105,000 residents, Renton is the 9th largest city in Washington, trailing just behind our northern neighbor Everett when it comes to population. Over 20,000 of its workers make less than what passes for minimum wage in surrounding jurisdictions.

Fortunately, the people of Renton are trying to address that in a special February vote. Ballots are out now, in fact. But these workers need our help to overcome special interest meddling.

Please donate and volunteer to help Raise the Wage Renton get over the finish line.

(From Raise the Wage Renton)

Given that a 2/3 supermajority of Americans want to double the federal minimum wage, this election in high-cost King County should be a slam dunk. Even a commanding majority in Florida—Ron DeSantis country—voted to raise their minimum wage to $15. And much of Florida is low-cost compared to our region. This is what Americans want.

And it is what Renton needs. The Seattle Times reports that a worker who makes Washington’s minimum wage (which is currently Renton’s minimum wage) would need to work 103 hours a week to afford a one bedroom apartment in King County. This is morally indefensible.

The benefits are obvious and the drawbacks are few. Nobel Winning research has shown minimum wage increases do not harm employment in the way the neoclassical economists imagined. This has been demonstrated over and over, and it often comes with significant economic benefits overall, for those who most need it. Truth be told, economists will probably forever bicker over whether there is any negative effect, whether it actually increases employment and either way, just how much. But overall the research suggests that when studies compare similar local economies and the wage is raised is the first one and held steady in the second (which is used as control group)—minimum wages have no negative labor market effect. Which eliminates the only possible objection to this increase.

Passing it should be a no brainer. Neighboring Tukwila recently passed a nearly identical initiative with 82% of the vote, basically a standing ovation in a democracy. It’s good for the families of the 20,000 workers making less than the hoped-for minimum, good for the community where they will live more stable lives and spend more money and pay more taxes, and fine for business. And even though economists have found that increases do not harm small businesses, this initiative goes the extra mile and exempts small businesses with fewer than 15 employees, and provides a two year phase in for businesses with 15-500 workers.

Unfortunately, making the world better is never easy, because whoever benefits from the status quo will fight to keep things the way they are. This is part of where the moniker “conservative” comes from.

And conservative groups, like the deceitfully named “Seattle Hospitality for Progress” are writing big checks to make sure poor people don’t get a raise in Renton. The fact that their name implies they are a progressive group is classic Republican style subterfuge. These people write checks for all kinds of conservative causes and candidates in the region, and they’ve recently dumped $80k into stopping the lowest paid workers in Renton from getting a modest raise.

Given the historic low turnout in November—and the fact February elections are usually even worse, and that low turnout elections skew more conservative—there is a real threat that the big money donors will manage to hold these workers’ wages down.

As Lin-Manuel Miranda’s version of James Madison put it in Hamilton: “We have to win.”

Please donate and volunteer and share this post on socials.