EDITORIAL: Nevada shouldn’t dare to emulate Seattle on minimum wage

The Seattle City Council’s unanimous decision last week to raise the minimum wage within the municipality to $15 an hour was met with raucous cheers by Democrats and labor activists. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray called it a “historic moment.“ Kshama Sawant, a socialist member of the council, said the move, which gives the city the highest minimum wage in the nation, would “turn the tide against corporate politics.”

“Fifteen dollars in Seattle is just the beginning,” she pledged. “We have an entire world to win.”

Seattle’s math-challenged elected officials firmly believe this aggressive minimum wage hike will lift low-skilled workers’ standard of living without consequence to their jobs or their employers, but the ordinance already is having a profoundly negative impact. The city was considered a difficult place to do business before the City Council vote. Now the mandatory wage increase will make things even tougher.

Commercial property landlords in Seattle say the wage hike is causing tenants to have second thoughts about renewing their leases. Multiple small business owners are putting off the expansion of existing businesses, the opening of new businesses and the hiring of workers. In fact, one sit-down restaurant near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport already has closed its doors, according to The Seattle Times.

The airport’s minimum wage increase preceded the city’s. According to the Northwest Asian Weekly, minimum wage employees there are losing benefits such as 401(k)s, health insurance, paid holidays, overtime, employee meals and free parking. Waiters and bartenders are seeing drops in tips from customers who believe they no longer need to tip as much, causing servers’ incomes to actually drop, and managers are having more and more busywork dumped in their laps.

Worst hurt by mandatory wage hikes, however, are young workers, who are being denied access to valuable and educational entry-level jobs. Teen unemployment figures already are higher than they were during the recession years of 2008 and 2009, and Seattle’s higher minimum wage will only cause youth joblessness to increase. Would you pay a 16-year-old looking for his first job $15 per hour — an annual full-time salary of $31,200?

Minimum-wage jobs are designed to be first steps on the career ladder, not permanent, “living-wage” positions that can be expected to support a family. Young workers, and teenagers in particular, need to learn how to interact with co-workers and customers, show up on time and consistently complete basic tasks — things that employers can’t afford to pay twice the national minimum wage for. If employers are forced to pay low-skilled workers a higher minimum wage, they are going to hire workers with skills beyond the minimum, especially with so many older workers looking for any job they can get. Teens who are denied the chance to work and must wait until their 20s to enter the workforce will see their future earnings lag behind those who gained early work experience.

Nevada’s elected officials and voters must stand firm against an increase in the minimum wage — whether it’s President Barack Obama’s plan to boost the federal wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, or any effort to further increase Nevada’s pay rate, which is $8.25 for employers that do not offer health insurance. Following Seattle’s lead — as other major cities seem inclined to do — would have severe consequences for a state that still has one of the country’s highest jobless rates.

The money has to come from somewhere. And a minimum wage increase doesn’t give you a raise if you don’t have a job.