In an action that has been years in the making, the DC council voted on July 22 to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The decision was unanimous.
This culmination of the “Fight for Fifteen” campaign, a movement aiming for a higher minimum wage to meet the costs of living. As elections press on, new topics are thrust to the forefront of public political attention, and this year minimum wage had become a hot button issue. Coupled with the aforementioned movement, the election cycle has prompted actions such as this to occur across the nation. The raise could send ripple effects throughout the not only this area but the entire nation as well.
The Fight for 15 began in New York City when a few hundred minimum wage fast food workers decided to strike for $15 and hour pay and union rights. The movement has since ballooned into a nationwide rally, and, according to a takepart.com article on the issue, its goal has been attained in not only New York but also California and now D.C. as well.
The election cycle further set the wheels into motion on minimum wage legislation. Especially on the Democratic side of the primaries, minimum wage has been deeply discussed and debated.
With a portion of the national voting demographic being minimum wage workers themselves, and, according to raisetheminimumwage.com, the group behind the Fight for 15 movement, 71% of voters support increases in minimum wage.
“The process shows that our candidates are considering it a relevant issue, it’s a prevalent part of what’s going on in the city,” Sport and Health front desk minimum wage worker Noah Marcus said.
According to governing.com, a government economic database, there are 4,000 registered people currently in D.C. who are working for the current minimum wage or lower. The change will give all of the people raises by placing D.C.’s future minimum wage higher than every state’s current minimum wage; the closest to it is Florida, which is only at a $10.50 minimum wage.
From the lower level up, many are lead to believe a domino effect could be incurred through the ranks of the economic hierarchy; placing upward pressure on the wages of those currently slotted above the minimum wage baseline. “When the minimum wage goes up everything starts to go up,” Jimmy John’s general manager Brandon Scott said.
The upward trend could spread to realms outward of pay grades as well. With the increasing cost of employment businesses will be forced to take measures to continue to maintain a profitable site. “I’m going to have to raise my prices; the prices raises will determine how much labor I have to cut.” Scott said.
While the resulting effects of the new wage raise are an uncertainty, change is an inevitability. Decade-long rumblings on the issue are bubbling up into tangible differences, finding out exactly what those differences will accumulate to is an activity reserved for 2020.