No Minimum Wage Boost for Seattle’s University Workers?

The city’s biggest employer may not adopt the trumpeted $15-an-hour law.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray after the City Council passed a $15 minimum wage measure (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

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Despite Seattle’s minimum wage victory, which will usher in a pay rate increase to $15 an hour starting April 1st, one major employer may be above the law. The Seattle Times reports that University of Washington, which ranks as the city’s largest employer with 30,000 workers, is in “limbo” on if and when to execute the new guidelines.

As a public entity UW falls into a gray area in light of an ongoing Supreme Court case. The city settled its own $15-an-hour minimum wage rate in 2013, but it’s undecided whether or not the law can apply to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as it’s owned and operated by the Port of Seattle.

“It appears that the city is pre-empted from dictating wages paid by the federal government, the school district and possibly the University of Washington,” a mayor’s office spokesman told the Times.

Even if UW adopts the hike, it will still be a couple years before all its minimum-wage employees work for $15 an hour. The law allows employers with over 500 workers to raise the hourly rate to just $11 starting April 1st, with the goal to work up to $15 an hour by 2017 or 2018, depending on medical benefits.

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Marielle Mondon is an editor and freelance journalist in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in Philadelphia City Paper, Wild Magazine, and PolicyMic. She previously reported on communities in Northern Manhattan while earning an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.

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Tags: seattleminimum wageanchor institutions

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