There are always a few items we’ve read during the week that deserve more attention but don’t make it into our regular posts. So we bundle them for the Friday roundup.
Here’s this (shorter) week’s bundle:
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin: Minimum wage hike not needed in rural Washington
Nevertheless, the marketplace — the demand for workers juxtaposed with the cost of living — has to be the major factor in setting wages. If government or voters through an initiative artificially inflate those wages too much or too fast it could have negative consequences.
Seattle and other Puget Sound-area cities, such as Tacoma and SeaTac, have raised their minimum wage higher than the state’s. Fine. That’s what their citizens want and their economy can apparently handle it.
But in the case of I-1433, which is on the Nov. 8 ballot, the proposed wage hike is too much for most of Washington state.
Gina Barreca column in Seattle Times: Trying to find your passion? Find a decent job instead.
Let’s stop telling young people to find their passion and start telling them to find a job. The work you do in the world is not supposed to make a fulfilled individual; it’s supposed to make you an employed individual.
The Olympian: Olympia income tax initiative likely to remain on November ballot.
A state appellate court commissioner issued a stay Friday that effectively means a ballot measure to create an income tax for some city of Olympia residents will appear on the Nov. 8 election ballot, even as legal questions over its constitutionality are argued on appeal.
The Lens: Minimum Wage, Maximum Debate
Felix Ngoussou, owner of the Lake Chad Café in Seattle’s Central District, previously supported I-1433. That was until he had to cut staff due to Seattle’s wage increase,King 5 News reported.
“[Seattle’s law] created more problems than resolved the problems we face as a business owner,” Ngoussou said.
Ngoussou added he supported the measure because it helps get people out of poverty but the initiative “isn’t complete” and “is supposed to be followed by an incentive to the employer.”
Seattle Times op-ed by State Sen. David Frockt: Access to higher education is a public good
The good news is that what occurred on college costs can be made even better in the coming legislative session if we put aside the partisanship and work together to extend as many higher-education opportunities as we can while reducing student debt. And it is not a complicated formula.
