I am impressed by the fact that the $15 minimum wage in SeaTac was decided by less than 50 people from a percentage of people that does not even register on the population for the State of Washington. We can all afford to pay this $6 cost of living increases for these workers through higher product costs. This minimum income win has now projected to New York. More in our local area, the people of Seattle have elected an advacate/adgitator to their city council to implement the $15 minimum wage in Seattle. What does this mean for people that work in these cities at minimum wage?

Minimum wage workers will immediately receive almost a $6 per hour salary increase on their paychecks. How will this affect the businesses in Washington State? Well it should not affect businesses in the state at all because they will simply pass the increased employee expense onto the consumer. For example a $1 McDonalds hamburger will now cost $8.

Employers will also receive a huge cost break because their employees now make double their previous wage so employers can cut each employee’s hours in half because of their windfall salary increase.

When employers cut their employees hours in half it will place all their employees below the 30-hour requirement (assuming they work 40 hours per week) established in Obamacare for mandatory employer paid medical plan coverage.

Employers can contribute by helping with the large number of unemployed in the state by hiring people to replace all of the people that just had their hours cut in half because they will still be exempt from providing employer paid medical coverage for all the new hires.

This whole minimum wage thing is outstanding and I believe the entire Democrat group of elected officials should now save the cost of having ballot measures on this wage issue and just raise the minimum wage statewide to $15 per hour that would be outstanding.

Larry L. Mann | Port Orchard