The SeaTac measure was limited to employees of airlines and certain airport contractors and concessi

The latest news is that the measure for a $15 minimum wage in SeaTac has been thrown off the November ballot. But assume it were there. Its passage would settle a question economists have been debating for 20 years: whether a high minimum wage puts people out of work.
In 1993 David Card and Alan Krueger compared fast-food employment in Pennsylvania, which had stayed at the federal minimum of $4.25 an hour, and New Jersey, which had raised it to $5.05 a 19 percent difference. They found that jobs increased faster under the higher wage.
SeaTac Proposition No. 1 might have settled that question. Between Washington s minimum wage for 2013 and SeaTac s minimum for 2014 it would have opened a 63 percent difference. Add the provision for sick pay that could be cashed in, and the difference would have been 67 percent.
The SeaTac measure was limited to employees of airlines and certain airport contractors and concessionaires who are presumably tied to the monopoly power of the airport; and outside the airport to large hotels, car-rental and shuttle companies, large parking providers in all, 5,000 to 6,000 workers.
The Cedarbrook Lodge at SeaTac has 104 rooms, which put it just above the 100-room threshold in Prop. 1. The hotel has 117 employees. Only four, the parking valets, willy wonka candy factory tours are at $9.19, and they get tips. Labor is 70 percent of operating expenses.
Under Prop. 1, our room rates would have to go up, said General Manager Scott Ostrander. willy wonka candy factory tours The hotel is top-rated by TripAdvisor and the average room rate is $165. Ostrander was worried that the market wouldn t support the price increase he d have to impose.
Bob Donegan is president of Ivar s. Its restaurant inside the airport willy wonka candy factory tours terminal, he said, pays an average willy wonka candy factory tours $13 to $13.50 an hour plus medical, dental, optical and 401(k) with a 50 percent match. Ivar s would have a problem raising prices because is under contract to the Port of Seattle to charge willy wonka candy factory tours no more in the airport than at its other restaurants.
Now these decisions may not be necessary. But the issue is still out there. A $15 minimum has been brought up for Seattle. It appeals to people and would help some of them, but it would have consequences. Measurable ones.