It’s time to raise up Washington’s Minimum Wage
Initiative 1433 will raise the state minimum wage to $13.50 over 4 years and establish a minimum standard for paid sick & safe time.
So what will I-1433 do exactly?
When passed, I-1433 will raise the statewide minimum wage to $13.50 over the next four years and provide up to 7 days of paid sick & safe leave as a base level for every employee in Washington.
Under I-1433 the minimum wage will increase in stages over four years: $11.00 (2017), $11.50 (2018), $12.00 (2019), and $13.50 (2020). After we reach $13.50 the wage will then increase annually with inflation.
More than 730,000 people in Washington will see a raise when we pass this initiative into law. That’s nearly one in every four workers.
Raising the statewide minimum wage from $9.47 to $13.50 over four years is a difference of $8,000 a year for full-time minimum wage workers. Low-wage workers turn right around and spend that money at local businesses benefiting communities all over the state. The math shows that over $2 Billion would be put back into the hands of workers who haven’t been able to support themselves, afford the basics, or contribute to the economy for far too long.
Initiative 1433 would also provide paid sick & safe leave for the 1 million workers in our state who don’t currently get any. You would build up sick & safe leave based on how many hours you work, at a rate of one hour per forty hours worked. If you get full-time hours, that adds up to about 7 days of paid leave a year.
You can use sick & safe leave for the following reasons: if you are sick, for a doctor appointment, to take care of a family member, or for cases of domestic violence.
“We are worried each time that the rent is due. Worried every time our children need us to buy them clothes. We’re pulling our hair. We feel desperation.
Don’t you think we have the right to a better quality of life? We that work in the warehouses wake up at four in the morning. We work in the fields, in agriculture. Don’t we deserve a dignified, living wage?”
“If you don’t make a stand for what you believe in, then nothing will happen. No one is going to give ya nothing. You know, we are already doing the work, and been doing the work, and been their everyday and working everyday and doing what we have to do with the little wages we are getting.
How can you keep people in that box day in day out without rewarding them?”