7 votes

The future of the minimum wage is alive in Seattle

1 comment

  1. FreakingPenguin
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    It's worth noting that the CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for all Urban Customers, basically the price for common goods) rose more in the Seattle area than the national CPI-U. (2.8% vs 1.9% over the...

    It's worth noting that the CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for all Urban Customers, basically the price for common goods) rose more in the Seattle area than the national CPI-U. (2.8% vs 1.9% over the past year). This partially mitigates some of the effects of a higher minimum wage and also hurts those earning above minimum wage more.

    Edit: On average, Seattle metro wages & salaries rose 3.7% from Sept. 2017 to 2018, as opposed to 3.1% nationally. Source.

    With the CPI-U increasing .9% more than the national average, but wages & salaries only increasing by .6% more, people in Seattle had slower real wage growth than if they lived in the average U.S. city. This isn't a perfect comparison (the first statistic tracks from Dec. 2017 to 2018 and the second from Sept. 2017 to 2018) but it's still interesting to consider.

    I'm sure the armchair economist did something wrong in his analysis, so feel free to correct me.

    2 votes