The $15 minimum wage bill that Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced Thursday will place Seattle among the highest waged places in the nation, Washington Post reported Sunday.
According to analysts, the planned $15 minimum wage bill is expected to give business with fewer that 500 employees seven years to comply while larger business would only take three years. Further increases are ten tied to inflation.
"Throughout this process, I've had two goals: to get Seattle's low-wage workers to $15-per-hour while also supporting our employers, and to avoid a costly battle at the ballot box between competing initiatives," said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray in a statement. "We have a deal that I believe accomplishes both goals."
Media reports say the $15 minimum wage bill proposal has the support of 21 of the 24 members of an income inequality panel convened last December.
The members of the said panel include employer, labor and nonprofit representatives, according to Washington Post.
"This has been a long process of give-and-take leading to an agreement that will help to narrow the income gap facing our middle class," Co-chair of the IIAC and CEO of the Seattle Hospitality Group Howard Wright said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the implications of the $15 minimum wage bill are being currently being debated since by the time the said bill kicks in for smaller companies in seven years, a minimum wage worker will be making at least $4 more per hour than similar workers elsewhere in the state.
On the other hand, while President Obama struggles to impose a minimum of $10.10 an hour on the nation, Seattle may have just blown a hole in the minimum wage debate by imposing this bill.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Washington is home to the nation's highest state minimum wage valued at $9.32 an hour.
At least 38 states are now considering minimum wage bills this 2014, and 34 of them are already projecting significant increases.
States that have already passed increases include Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Maryland and West Virginia.
Hawaii is also expected to join the list after legislators approved a future hike to $10.10.
The $15 minimum wage bill will be passed by the City Council and will be heard by a council wage and inequality committee next Monday.
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