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The UW Minimum Wage Study January, 2016 News and Notes Allard: Nonprofits face challenges Writing for the Brookings Institution blog The Avenue, Scott W. Allard highlighted the potential impact of rising minimum wages on non- profits. Nonprofit organiza- tions employ 10% of Seattle’s low wage workforce, howev- er little research has been done on the effects of the policy to this sector. Increases in the minimum wage are occurring at the same time that many non- profit service organizations are confronted with fixed or declining revenue streams. The City of Seattle has set aside funds to help non- profits meet the higher local minimum wage, but many nonprofit funding streams are beyond the city’s control and are not seeing similar adjustments. The full article can be found here. In June 2014 Seattle’s City Council voted to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 by 2021. One month later, a team including University of Washington faculty and economists from the Washington State Employ- ment Security Department convened to begin discussing a research pro- ject evaluating the impact of the min- imum wage ordinance. This team secured an evaluation con- tract from the City of Seattle and re- search funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, among oth- er sources. Study personnel have been working to track the impact of the minimum wage beyond the labor market, to understand how higher wage costs influence business and nonprofit decision making, and to explore how higher wages impact work- ing families’ daily lives. Originally con- ceived as a study of a single city, the UW minimum wage study has expanded its scope to consider wage increases na- tionwide. The team expects to release its first comprehensive analysis in June 2016. This is the first in a planned series of updates for scholars and citizens with an interest in our findings. This re- search is a form of public service and our team hopes to convey the insights of our work well beyond the ivory tow- er. We appreciate your attention and look forward to engaging with you. - Jake Vigdor, Study Director Welcome! Date >500 employ- ees >500 em- ployees ≤500 em- ployees ≤500 employ- ees No Benefits Benefits No Benefits or Tips Benefits or Tips 4/1/2015 11.00 11.00 11.00 10.00 1/1/2016 13.00 12.50 12.00 10.50 1/1/2017 15.00 13.50 13.00 11.00 1/1/2018 * 15.00 14.00 11.50 1/1/2019 * * 15.00 12.00 1/1/2020 * * * 13.50 1/1/2021 * * * 15.00 Seattle Minimum Wage Reaches $13 Seattle workers just got a raise. On January 1, the minimum wage went up by between $0.50 and $2.00. Seattle now has four different minimum wages de- pendent on size of the company, health insurance provision, and whether work- ers receive tips. Minimum Wages in Washington: Seattle’s minimum wage will reach $15/hr for businesses with >500 employees next year Voters in Tacoma passed an ordinance raising their minimum wage to $12/hr phased in over two years An initiative to raise Washington State’s minimum wage to $13.50/hr by 2020 was filed in Olympia After reaching $15 /hr the mini- mum wage will be indexed to infla- tion. By 2021, all Seattle companies mini- mum wage will be at or above $15 /hr. All future increases will happen on January 1st of each upcoming year. http://evans.uw.edu/minimum-wage-study [email protected]
