Good news everyone! The city council in Seattle just recently passed a law to help raise the minimum wage in Seattle to $15 an hour. This is a step forward, a way to help those who are less fortunate to survive on minimum wage. Seattle’s city council‘s ordinance will continue to make Seattle one of the most progressive cities in America, right?

In theory it is a nice idea, but in practice making the minimum wage $15 an hour will hurt the lower class and the local economy of Seattle. It is a bad move for Seattle’s economy in a variety of ways, from businesses finding ways to cut jobs to decreased government benefits for low wage employees.

First, for many small businesses the new minimum wage will increase their operational costs.  This will naturally lead them to figure out how to maintain production levels while getting rid of lower wage workers to save money.

One clear way to thin out lower wage workers is advancements in technology. Automated systems have already replaced workers in places like grocery stores, but some companies have avoided replacing employees with machines, as doing so gets rid of the human element. However, when Seattle businesses are faced with higher costs, companies will not hesitate to replace employees with machines to save money.

For example, according to CNET, McDonald’s has been testing an automated touchscreen register in Europe that allows customers to order their food. Now that the minimum wage is going to be raised, McDonalds will likely look to test the new touchscreen register out in the Seattle area. If this happens, hundreds of jobs will no longer exist.

Tim Worstall, a contributor to Forbes and a fellow at the Adam Smith Institute, agrees, on top of losing jobs, the higher minimum wage will hurt typical minimum wage workers, such as high school kids and those who lack a college education. With fewer jobs available the market will become more competitive.

College graduates who have a hard time getting a job and those who work while pursuing a career will be attracted to the $15 minimum wage. They may even come from other places to work in Seattle. I can guarantee that employers will prefer these college graduates to the typical minimum wage worker. 

Benefits that workers take for granted, from parking to federal benefits, will end up costing them more than they are used to. The Washington Policy Center, a free market think tank, discovered a photo has been released from the SeaTac area that shows MasterPark, a valet parking service, is now charging a ‘living wage surcharge’ on top of its cost, which amounts to an 8.25 percent tax hike.

Added benefits and compensation are sure to be reduced to make up for the cost of higher wages, Jeffrey Dorfman a professor of economics at the University of Georgia, pointed out in an article by Forbes.

These benefits can be very important for some people, such as health insurance. We can see these effects already in SeaTac the wage is already $15 an hour and it has led to decreased benefits for workers.

The Forbes article “We Can Predict the Effects of Seattle’s $15 an Hour Minimum Wage” quoted a waitress who works at a SeaTac hotel. She said, “I lost my 401k, health insurance, paid holiday, and vacation,” as well as, “no more free food.”

As the waitress pointed out in her experience with a higher wage, minimum wage workers will lose their federal benefits. The added income will add new worries to low wage workers, such as not being able to get food stamps and having to pay higher taxes due to their higher income. 

Anything the government can do, such as raise the minimum wage, does not get to the heart of the problem that plagues our local and federal economy.

It is not a high minimum wage that has made Seattle so great; it is innovations in technology and businesses like Starbucks and Microsoft that has made Seattle a beacon for forward-thinking business.

Raising the wage is dangerous and unnecessary when the state’s minimum wage is already about $3 higher than the federal minimum wage. The idea is thoughtful and well-intentioned, but good intentions do not create change. The wage experiment has already taken place in SeaTac and has had negative effects, so Seattle needs to wipe its eyes and look past ideals to reality. 

Some people like to see Seattle as a Northwest Utopia of sorts, a big city that manages to stay cleaner than most others, a shining example of American ingenuity and a truly modern city.  The new wage hike is putting Seattle in uncharted waters where it will sink or float. If I were a betting man, I’d say that if Seattle isn’t careful it could sink and end up just like old Atlantis.