Kim Wyman’s Campaign Is A Cautionary Tale

October 4, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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2016, elections, News, voting, walelex

The Secretary of State’s office is not a particularly sexy one; stop a person on 5th Avenue in Seattle and ask “hey stranger, who’s the Secretary of State?” and they will either name John Kerry or give you a blank stare. This general lack of enthusiasm and recognition likely would have been beneficial for current Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman in her reelection campaign. Wyman, a Republican, holds a seat that has been (strangely) kept out of the hands of Democrats for nearly 50 years, and she could possibly have sailed into her second term on a hope and a prayer were it not for two key factors: 1.) Her opponent and 2.) Herself. Way back in January —well before the primaries were even started in earnest—former Seattle City Councilmember and tech-sector leader Tina Podlodowski announced she would be challenging Wyman. Podlodowski’s campaign focused on expanding voting access (one of her first ads featured footage of Wyman saying she would not support the Washington Voting Rights Act), streamlining elections, and saving taxpayers money. A major part of Podlodowski’s campaign against Wyman has been undermining Wyman’s time in office; she’s cited low voter turnout, a lack of ballot boxes, and the frustration voters felt over the caucus system in the spring. In September, she uncovered a glaring error in the state’s voter database that could have resulted in a data breach—and seemed to pin its existence on Wyman’s inattention. Podlodowski has turned what might have otherwise been Wyman’s sleepy cruise into incumbency into an actual race. But she’s not even Wyman’s biggest enemy, as the last few days have demonstrated. Despite netting endorsements from many of the local newspapers, Wyman’s earned media has largely been soured by her own record. After the Everett Herald wrote that she “deserves another term,” Rep. Luis Moscoso wrote in to correct their editorial , stating that “Wyman didn’t step up”
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Chris Christie Is In The Minority On Minimum Wage

August 31, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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Minimum Wage, trickle-down

Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie did two things that surprised no one: He went to a Springsteen concert and he shot down the NJ legislature’s attempt to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15. What do these two things have in common? Both Springsteen and raising the minimum wage are very popular with The Common Person. And while Governor Christie appears to be on the right side of history with his love of the Boss (he claims to have seen the man in concert over 100 times), he’s swimming upstream in his opposition to an increased minimum wage. Chris Christie knows all the words A video posted by Luc Cohen (@luccohen92) on Aug 30, 2016 at 9:32pm PDT In his statement about the decision, Christie cited speed of the increase—to $15 over five years— as his reason for vetoing the bill, stating that it “fails to consider the capacity of businesses, especially small businesses, to absorb the substantially increased labor costs it will impose” adding that it would be responsible for “killing jobs and erasing gains of more than 275,000 private sector jobs since 2010.” Aside: He said “killing jobs”! Do a shot! The New Jersey business community immediately rushed to express support for the decision; the New Jersey Business & Industry Association agreed with Christie, calling the proposed increase “too much, too fast.” Which is basically exactly what business leaders always say—whatever you propose, regardless of the phase-in period or any other considerations, it’s too much and it’s too fast. How much of a minimum increase would be just right? That’s a little harder to pinpoint (since, you know, trickle-downers are pretty slippery) but thanks to leaked polling from this spring, we know that the support—even in the business community!—is definitely there; 80% of respondents to a survey for business owners said they supported an increase to their state’s wage. If business owners are anything like regular people—and let’s
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Study: Raising the Minimum Wage Is Good For Babies

July 7, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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$15, Minimum Wage, raise the wage

We already know that increasing the minimum wage would help working families , reduce childhood poverty (and thus, make kids healthier ), and generally make life better for parents and kids . But a new public health survey released in May found that the impact of raising the minimum wage isn’t just positive for families as a unit—according to the study , a raise of just $1 could actually reduce infant mortality. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, sought to “investigate the effects of state minimum wage laws on low birth weight and infant mortality in the United States,” according to the authors, Kelli A. Komro, PhD, MPH, Melvin D. Livingston, PhD, Sara Markowitz, PhD, and Alexander C. Wagenaar, PhD. Their findings? “If all states in 2014 had increased their minimum wages by 1 dollar, there would likely have been 2790 fewer low birth weight births and 518 fewer postneonatal deaths for the year.” All things told, the researchers found, that same dollar increase would decrease infant mortality by as much as 4%. This is hardly the first study that’s linked higher wages to improved public health. A 2015 report published in The Nation’s Health, Minnesota State Health Commissioner Edward Ehlinger called the state’s minimum-wage increase a greater benefit to public health than a tobacco tax increase enacted that same year. From that report: “If you look at the conditions that impact health, income is right at the top of the list,” Ehlinger said. “Anything we can do to help enhance economic stability will have a huge public health benefit. This is a major public health issue.” It’s not a huge surprise; wealth and public health are linked in a variety of ways. People living in poverty are more susceptible to obesity , heart disease , and l ower life expectancy . And while these links are due to myriad factors, almost all of them can be solved or at least ameliorated just by putting a little
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With a Tipped Wage, Customers Are Stuck Picking Up the Tab

May 16, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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$15, Minimum Wage, tipped wage

I have written before about tip crediting and how I wish more politicians—specifically, those who are running for, you know, President— would come out against it. At the time, I noted that it’s a policy which fosters the race and gender income gap by disproportionately impacting women, which remains true. What I did not mention—because, I don’t know, it didn’t seem to bear repeating—was that it’s also actually just kind of mind-boggling that anyone would argue in favor of a wage of just shy of three American dollars per hour in a place like Washington, DC, where the tipped wage is $2.77 and the minimum wage is $10.50. For a full-time worker, that’s a paycheck of a scant $443.20 per month. $443.20. Per. Month. Of course, the assumption with the tipped wage is that a server is probably making the $7.73 in tips she’d need to to round herself up to $10.50 (if not, her employer is required to float the rest although anyone who’s looked into this in even a cursory manner could tell you that often doesn’t happen). Again, let’s look closely at that: Base wage: $2.77 per hour Required tipped income to make minimum wage: $7.73 per hour Total base wages required to be paid by employer: $22.16 Total required tips to even make minimum wage per eight-hour shift: $61.84 Which means a) as a patron in Washington DC you’re expected to float restaurant owners to the tune of 73.6% of their employee payroll costs, and b) as a server, your actual base wage is less important than the amount of money you can pull from a customer’s wallet. If this is surprising to you, you’re not alone; D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has recently proposed a change to the area’s minimum wage laws, which would raise the base minimum wage to $15 over several years, and gradually increase the tipped wage from $2.77 to $7.50 over the next six years. DC has been gradually
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Can We Afford To Talk About Campaign Finance Reform Without Talking About Voting Rights?

May 2, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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campaign finance, Jeb Bush, Policy, voting rights

On a sunny Saturday earlier this year, I stood across the street from Town Hall Seattle on an oil-stained driveway in front of a condo building I’ll never be able to afford as a man in Transitions® Lenses shouted at me about how Bernie Sanders was going to get money out of politics. “He’s going to overturn Citizens United!” the man, who was caucusing for Sanders, yelled at our precinct. “He’s going to make sure that corporations can’t buy elections anymore!” “And then what?” I asked. “And then the billionaires can’t buy elections anymore!” the man stated triumphantly to applause. That wasn’t exactly what I was asking. This campaign promise has been a keystone for Sanders (Hillary Clinton’s campaign has stumbled on this talking point but has been refining it as the race trundles on) and it clearly resonated deeply with this man. On his campaign site, Sanders outlines his hope for the nation: Our vision for American democracy should be a nation in which all people, regardless of their income, can participate in the political process, can run for office without begging for contributions from the wealthy and the powerful. Which is, of course, an extremely great goal—but, in the absence of a plan to address another huge, looming issue that’s aggressively threatening democracy, it feels a little hollow. What I wanted to ask the man at my caucus, and what I’m still wondering about, is this: If you spend all of your energy rallying to get money out of politics, but at no point work to get more people involved in politics, what is the end result? Or, put more simply: Can we afford to talk about campaign finance reform without talking about voting rights? Interestingly, in August of 2015, Bernie Sanders has addressed this question directly : We are facing a two-pronged attack on our democracy — unlimited money poured into the political process, paired with the
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The $15 Minimum Wage Is Apparently a Time Traveler

April 27, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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$15, Minimum Wage, Seattle, unemployment

Raising the minimum wage is power. Powerful enough to lift millions out of poverty . Powerful enough to reduce dependence on social services , such as food stamps. And, apparently, powerful enough to go back in time and change unemployment numbers for teens and also spur lawmakers to create policies to address those numbers. At least, that’s what the conservative bloggers over at ShiftWA seem to think—which would certainly explain their apparent fear of a minimum wage increase. I mean, if it’s so completely able to change the arc of time, what can’t it do? Their most recent example of the minimum wage’s might is Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s youth employment initiative which, they say, is a direct response to the massive decline in youth employment as a direct result of the gradual ascent to $15. First pointed out by right-wing think tank the Washington Policy Center, the initiative is designed to help encourage businesses to hire more youths, and to train young people to make them more job-ready. Because, according to WPC and Shift, it’s the minimum wage that has made it so hard for them to get hired. Nevermind the fact that Washington’s schools are literally criminally underfunded , which could contribute to a dearth of teens with necessary skills the join the workforce (according to the Mayor’s office, “nearly 70% of employers report graduates are deficient in critical thinking and problem solving skills essential to successful job performance”)—no, the reason teens and other young folks can’t get hired is because of a law that went into effect just about 400 days ago. That makes perfect sense, assuming that the minimum wage increase was somehow impacting employment long before it actually became a law, let alone went into effect. Washington state has had high numbers of teen unemployment for years; a 2011 report found that “Washington teens are only slightly better off than teens in Georgia when it comes to unemployment rates” (for reference,
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Why Minimum Wage Opponents Are Dropping Big Money to Trick You

April 22, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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Minimum Wage, Seattle, trickle-down, unemployment

The deeply ironic act of spending money to avoid paying workers even a cent more is not new; conservative think tanks, lobbyists, and industry groups have been shelling out money in the form of campaign donations, legal services, and “educational” materials for ages. Just look at how far the airlines and Port of Seattle went just to avoid paying SeaTac airport workers $15 an hour. That couldn’t have been cheap. And we know from a ROC report that the National Restaurant Association had (as of 2014) spent close to $13M on political donations since 1989, largely to fight proposed labor laws like increased minimum wage and sick leave. But they’re not just throwing money at guys in suits to argue that this country is becoming a nanny state, damnit! No, they are also spending decent dollars on campaigns to actively mislead you—with clever names that sound like they may be quite scholarly. Like, you know, MinimumWage.com: …Which is paid for by the very-rational-sounding Employment Policies Institute (EPI—not to be confused with the other EPI , who actually do good work), who are in fact a right-wing think tank whose major focus is ensuring the minimum wage stays as low as possible. Another “winner”: MinimumWageFacts.com: …Which is a product of the Freedom Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank which has fought the unions at every possible turn. And to be honest, I have to recognize the hustle that these groups are demonstrating. It’s extremely clever to just snatch up a domain knowing full well that people will be Googling exactly that fact. Plus, buying domains is fun! I recently did it myself! Y’all last night I had some fun with domains and I made a vanity url for my Twitter profile. Enjoy: https://t.co/3Sr7TW5mc3 — Hanna Brooks Olsen (@mshannabrooks) April 19, 2016 But truly, the idea of spending real American dollars for the express purpose of spreading misinformation (more on that later)
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Poll Confirms ‘Most Americans, Even Most Republicans, Are Okay with Raising the Minimum Wage’

April 5, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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$15, Minimum Wage, paid sick leave, small business

Despite being paid wages that are well below what’s required to even rent a place and being forced to go to work even when they’re very ill , workers are often not viewed as the most sympathetic group in conversations about labor issues like the minimum wage and paid sick leave. Instead, when discussing these policies, you can safely assume that at some point, someone will sympathetically bring up the plight of business owners. Business owners—sorry, job creators—are persistently held up as the ultimate victims of changes to labor laws. They suffer from razor-thin margins, according to opponents, and they’ll surely be forced to shutter their stores for good if they’re required to pay their workers more. In just about every news story on the subject, you can expect to see at least one “local business owner” talking about what havoc it might create. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t definitely some business owners who are concerned, and many more who may have to make slight adjustments. But, despite the outward appearance of a united front in opposition to raising wages and providing sick leave, it seems that many business owners actually are neutral or outwardly support these policies. According to watchdog group the Center for Media and Democracy , a survey conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz has turned up widespread support of these matters among the very group of people that conservative lawmakers typically say they’re protecting when they pass laws like preemptions , which bar cities from opting to raise the wage within their limits. The survey, which asked 1,000 business owners, found that just 8% of business owners actively oppose raising the minimum wage, and 9% oppose paid sick leave. Meanwhile, 30% “totally support” paid sick leave, while another 42% either “mostly” or “somewhat” support it. David Merritt, the global director for LuntzGlobal, even admitted that the minimum wage is, in fact, pretty popular, noting in a webinar about the results that “it’s undeniable that
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California’s Minimum Wage Increase Is Totally Reasonable

March 29, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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$15, california, Minimum Wage

Just a few days after California’ minimum wage initiative officially qualified for to go before voters, lawmakers in the Golden States announced that they’d skip the fight at the ballot box fight and instead, start working on a plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 over the next six years. Naturally, immediately, opponents began telling their tall tails about how the decision would definitely lead to a loss of jobs , because of course, that’s exactly what’s happened before! Which is not true; if raising the minimum wage necessarily resulted in job loss, Washington State’s border towns, like Spokane, would be lined with empty storefronts—but of course, that hasn’t happened . And, statistically, it won’t . But I was curious about California’s increase, specifically, because unlike its neighbor to the north, California will only be phasing in their increase, but won’t be staggering them by the size of the city or county, or by cost of living. The entire state will be seeing an increase of a dollar each year between 2019 and 2022. Which sounds like a lot, but is it, really? From the Los Angeles Times : The NFIB called the California deal “reckless” and observed, that “small businesses in California are still struggling to cope with the 25% minimum wage hike over just the past two years.” This is a huge exaggeration: California’s minimum wage increased to $10 this year after being raised to $9 on July 1, 2014, and to $8 on Jan. 1, 2008; the proper math would place the increase at 25% over eight years, or 11.1% over the last year and a half. An increase of 25% over eight years might even still sound steep to a small business owner watching their bottom line, and heaven knows opponents of the minimum wage love to call any and all increase “an experiment,” but just how much is a typical minimum wage increase—and, historically, how does California’s plan factor in? Often,
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The Opposition to Secure Scheduling Sounds Very Familiar

March 24, 2016 Hanna Brooks Olsen

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labor, Minimum Wage, Scheduling, trickle-down, workers

Déjà vu is a fairly common experience (with a surprisingly scientific explanation )—but if you ever really want to pause and ask yourself “haven’t I been here before?”, all you need to do is listen to business interests try to argue against pro-worker policies. The most recent instance of this truly puzzling phenomenon is in the bubbling battle over a potential secure scheduling ordinance in the City of Seattle—where in the last five years, Councilmembers, activists, unions, and business leaders have clashed over similar laws, including paid safe and sick leave and the increased minimum wage. And despite how recently these fights were won—in spite of the fact that we can all clearly remember the exact people and businesses who opposed the ordinances and their precise language—those same forces are now back at the table and seem to be entirely comfortably recycling their talking points. In a March 21 meeting of the city’s Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development & Arts Committee, headed up by secure scheduling proponent Councilmember Lisa Herbold, representatives from local restaurants—including Pamela Hinckley, the CEO of Tom Douglas’s Seatown Restaurants—and the business community were invited to discuss their concerns about the potential legislation, which hasn’t even been officially drafted yet. Immediately, the defensiveness began—and with it came the three arguments that we typically see in these situations: It’s not really a problem/workers like it how it is. It’s not really a problem for us because we are nice to our workers / it’s just a few bad apples. Even if it is a problem it’s too expensive to fix. In the corner of the first argument, we had Hinckley, who seemed suspect that the issue even existed and suggested—of course—that there just wasn’t data to support it. “We’d like to put forward a request for a full city audit of scheduling practices,” Hinckley explained, “to see how businesses schedule…to see if we really
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Civic Ventures

Posts by Hanna Brooks Olsen