Activists built support for the ordinance by demonstrating that it would reduce poverty in the city.
By YES! Editors
Yesterday, June 2, the Seattle City Council approved a new ordinance that will raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 per hour—the highest in the United States.
Most visible were young activists in their twenties and thirties who moved directly from [City Councilmember Kshama] Sawant’s campaign to a new group, “15 Now.”
Seattle’s economy is fueled by high-tech industries and cutting-edge products produced by some the most famous corporate names in the nation: Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing.
But the cost of living in the city is high and rising. People who work in low-wage nonprofessional jobs here—restaurant workers for example—find it increasingly difficult to afford the rising cost of food and housing in the city. As is true across the United States, many low-wage workers have to supplement their full-time salaries with government assistance like food stamps in order to have both rent and groceries.
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