SeaTac wage activists attended a Port of Seattle Commission meeting on Tuesday [January 7] to appeal to commissioners to get a $15-per-hour minimum wage reinstated at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
On Dec. 27, King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas struck down part of a city of SeaTac ordinance that would have increased the minimum wage from $9.32 per hour to $15 per hour for some employees at the airport, which is run by the port, as well as others outside the airport. Her decision limited the minimum-wage increase to some hospitality workers in the city of SeaTac. Wage activists have appealed her decision to the state Supreme Court.Service Employees International Union distributed video of a KING 5 TV story on the port commission meeting.
But last week I also got the worker perspective on the implementation of Prop 1 from a young Latina acquaintance who rides the bus I take from the light rail stop in SeaTac. She works at one of the hotels located next to the building where I work.
According to my friend, her employer, in order to get out of paying the $15/hr minimum wage passed by initiative, is laying off staff to get below 30 employees, the trigger for the $15/hr wage. My friend will earn $15/hr this month, but next month she will go back to $9.32/hr, except that the number of rooms she cleans will go up to 19 from 17.
"Very bad," she said.
Her English isn't very good, and my Spanish is unspeakable. So I had difficulty understanding what she was trying to say, but I think that was what she was getting at. I had her repeat it twice.
Now she has more work for less pay. Isn't capitalism beautiful?
