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[Steven Marchese] At the time in the early 20 teens,
Seattle is growing, tremendous tech boom is coming.
Cost of living is going up across the region.
Housing is becoming more expensive,
and workers are realizing that they're working for wages
that haven't been increasing to match the pace of inflation.
These are the folks who work at restaurants.
They're the folks who clean.
They take care of our children.
They tend the gardens.
We're talking about people who really make this city function.
SeaTac adopted the first increase to the minimum wage locally.
That energy really propelled advocates
to really try to make a change here in the city of Seattle.
“STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!”
$15 was seen at the time
as a reasonable dollar amount that would be achievable over time.
There was a coalition of worker and worker advocates, folks who recognized that
it is an important part of their mission to uphold the dignity of work,
not only for their members, but also for workers overall.
And then you had advocacy organizations making the case publicly
for why this was necessary.
“Nine in favor, none opposed.”
(CHEERS)
Seattle, by the nature of its size, has a direct impact
on the regional economy far beyond the limits of the city.
It's the single largest economic driver of this of the region.
And so that really put pressure on these other jurisdictions in the region
to increase their minimum wage and by extension, the state,
which also responded with its own change of minimum wage.
In a time where the national consensus
on how to treat workers is evolving and changing.
It's important to be able to uphold those standards in the community
where we live and work.
We know that we could protect workers here in the City of Seattle,
and those protections exist regardless of what's happening in
the national capital or in state capitals in other states around the country.
It's set a new floor
and a new floor
that recognized both the true value and impact of what workers were bringing,
and also in relationship to the changes in the overall cost of living.