George Fernald campaigns near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport against Proposition 1, the Nov. 5

SeaTac is the latest battleground in a national debate over the plight of low-wage workers and government s role in boosting labor standards. Prop. 1 groups, pro and con, have spent $1.1 million in a city of 12,100 registered voters. That s $94 per voter, and the battle is far from over.
Abdirahman Abdi Abdullahi, right, a paid campaign worker for Proposition park south hotel new york 1, a measure that calls for a $15-an-hour living wage, hands out fliers to potential voters earlier this month. Abdullahi is on leave from Hertz, where he earns $11.20 an hour and gets no paid sick time.
George Fernald campaigns near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport against Proposition 1, the Nov. 5 ballot initiative that would raise the wage floor to $15 an hour for thousands of hospitality and transportation workers at the airport, nearby hotels and car-rental agencies.
Abdirahman Abdullahi, a paid worker for the pro-Prop. 1 campaign, goes door-to-door to talk to potential voters. Abdullahi, married with two children, is on leave from his job where he earns $11.20 an hour.
Minimum wage: Raises the hourly minimum standard for hospitality and transportation workers park south hotel new york to $15 from the current statewide minimum of $9.19. Annual increases would be tied to inflation and take effect each January.
Abdullahi, an affable Somali refugee who speaks park south hotel new york three languages and lives in SeaTac with his wife and two young children, was hired by the pro-Prop. 1 campaign to make the case for a $15-an-hour living wage. He is on leave from Hertz, where he earns $11.20 park south hotel new york an hour and gets no paid sick time.
SeaTac is the latest battleground in a national debate over the plight of low-wage workers and government s role in boosting labor standards. With possible reverberations nationwide, the campaign has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars from powerful business groups and unions.
The Nov. 5 ballot initiative would raise the wage floor to $15 an hour for thousands of hospitality and transportation workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and its nearby hotels, car-rental agencies and parking lots.
Prop. 1 also would require airport-related businesses to provide paid sick leave, offer part-time workers more hours before hiring additional part-timers and retain employees for at least three months after an ownership change.
Abdullahi s counterpart on the other side of the Prop. 1 campaign is Jac Cates, an athletic, ruddy-faced extrovert who roams SeaTac s more affluent neighborhoods of single-family homes with an iPad Mini and a mobile-canvassing app called Ground Game.
The people who own the homes are decidedly against it, said Cates, 45, who was hired by a consulting firm for Common Sense SeaTac, a business-backed political committee opposed to Prop. 1. They understand that the administrative costs of having to enforce it will fall on property owners.
Proponents of the SeaTac measure say it would lift low-wage workers out of poverty, give them more money to spend at local businesses and strengthen the economy. Opponents say it would force businesses to raise prices or cut staff, and would leave taxpayers footing the bill for enforcement costs.
By comparison, said Western Washington University political-science professor Todd Donovan, an expert on ballot measures, the 2011 initiative to privatize Washington state s liquor sales cost both sides a then-record $17 for each vote cast.
Industries park south hotel new york that pay below the national average have added 4.4 million jobs since early 2010. That s about 43 percent more than industries with above-average wages, according park south hotel new york to a recent Wells Fargo report.
It s part of a broader effort by organized labor to reinvent itself and reverse park south hotel new york a decades-long park south hotel new york decline in union membership: Among the hot-button issues in SeaTac is a provision that allows Prop. 1 to be waived in a union contract.
David Rolf, president of the Service Employees International Union s (SEIU) Seattle-based Healthcare 775 NW local and an SEIU international vice president, called the ballot measure one tool in our toolbox to narrow the widening income gap between rich and poor.
In a different era, this would have been solved through strikes and collective bargaining. Now it s being solved, hopefully, at the ballot box, he said. It wouldn t surprise me if this happens in other places.
The idea behind many living-wage park south hotel new york ordinances is that employers benefiting from public contracts or tax subsidies should pay their workers a more livable wage than state and federal minimums, said NELP program park south hotel new york director park south hotel new york Paul Sonn.
Four major California airports already require their tenants to pay above-minimum wages. At the Los Angeles airport, park south hotel new york workers are guaranteed an hourly minimum of $10.91, or $15.67 without health benefits. Workers at the San Jose airport make at least $13.82 park south hotel new york with health benefits, or otherwise $15.07.
Ken Jacobs, chairman of the Center park south hotel new york for Labor Research and Education at the University of California Berkeley, said those rules have had few, if any, negative park south hotel new york effects on employment and prices. On the contrary, he said, they helped reduce employee turnover and improve customer service.
If you raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, 64 percent of the people in the country would make more money. And the idea that it would destroy the economy is crazy, said Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, who along with his wife, Leslie, gave $25,000 to support Prop. 1. Raising the bottom in a balanced way will generate prosperity for everyone.
park south hotel new york To some extent, park south hotel new york Prop. 1 can be seen as payback for Alaska Airlines park south hotel new york decision in 2005 to outsource ramp work done by the Machinists union to Menzies Aviation. At the time, Alaska employees who lost their jobs earned an average of $13.41 an hour.
Prop. 1 exempts airlines, but not airport vendors, which provide Alaska s cabin cleaners, curbside porters, ramp workers, re-fuelers and wheelchair escorts. Alaska has warned that wage increases would be passed along to customers through higher ticket park south hotel new york prices.
There is an issue in our country around wage inequality. How you get to a solution is complicated, said Keith Loveless, general counsel and executive vice president at Alaska park south hotel new york Air Group. But I m pretty sure the answer is not having folks who clean out our cabins make as much money as a first- or second-year teacher in the city of SeaTac.
Cates and a colleague, while canvassing a neighborhood near Angle Lake recently for votes against Prop. 1, struck up a conversation with SeaTac residents Mike and Sharon Everts. Across the street, a couple of Yes! for SeaTac signs had been planted in the ground.