You sit on a small bench sheltered by a purple structure. As you sit and wait for the bus your eyes dart from your phone to the road, the road to the schedule, the schedule back to your phone. It is not until 20 minutes later that your bus arrives and you are able to leave the protection of the sheltered bench. But what if those 20 minutes turned into 20 hours? It may be hard for many of us to imagine our lives confined to such a small space for a long period of time, but amid the minimum wage and housing crises, this has become a stark reality for many Seattle residents.
Housing costs are rising, and the minimum wage is not keeping up. An increasing number of residents are becoming displaced, causing many to rely on public areas, including bus structures, parks and community spaces, to protect and house them and all their possessions.
“It’s sad,” Tony Holzwarth, a Seattle resident, said after seeing the same unhoused person at the same bus shelter daily.
Becoming visibly agitated at having to think about the issue, Holzwarth continued to explain that the government needs to step in and help the people affected by the minimum wage and housing crises.
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries has confirmed that the minimum wage will rise to $16.28 per hour in 2024. Local policymakers, community leaders, and residents say it’s not enough.
Washington State has the highest state-level minimum wage in the United States. Local governments can set the minimum wage higher than the state-level minimum; for example, Seattle’s minimum wage is rising from $18.69 to $19.97 per hour, while the federal minimum wage remains constant at $7.25 per hour.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), renters in King and Snohomish counties need to make at least $47.21 per hour to afford the average rent of a two-bedroom unit. At minimum wage, a renter must work 120 hours per week to afford the same housing. Pierce County renters must make $31.60 per hour or work 80 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom unit.
Some organizations have raised their internal minimum wage to combat rising living costs. Based on the NLIHC report, the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) announced in August that the agency will be raising its minimum wage to $32 per hour.
“It’s really against our values,” said April Black, executive director of the THA. “We’re a social justice organization, we work to fight poverty, and we were paying wages that were causing our staff to be in poverty and to qualify for our programs.”
Holzwarth also commented on the minimum wage and housing crises saying that “the more you go up the chain, the more you see that companies are recording these record profits, but the wages of the workers are hardly going up,” he said. “It’s all about stockholders and shareholders.”
Holzwarth currently works for an organization in Seattle that contributes heavily to the culture and activity of the city. His organization has a slightly higher minimum wage than the city’s, and he lives with three roommates in a neighborhood seen as lower-end. He says he still lives paycheck-to-paycheck, struggling to get by. He said he had just $23 in his bank account at the time of our interview.
“It’s depriving [workers] of their basic needs,” Holzwarth said. “Most of the time, minimum wage workers can barely afford rent, can barely afford food; they got other s— they need to buy.”
Holzwarth goes on to say that the government should step in to help solve the wage and housing crises.
“What’s the point of living under a government if they’re not going to do anything to help you?”
In response to wage disparities, King County Council Member Girmay Zahilay announced legislation to create a county-level minimum wage.
“Workers in unincorporated King County are always left out of policies that increase the minimum wage in neighboring cities,” Zahilay said in a statement in September. “That means someone working in Skyway could be paid several dollars less per hour than if they went a block north to Seattle or a block west to Tukwila. That’s not right.”
The legislation, which would raise the minimum wage to $18.99, is being led by Zahilay and County Council Members Rod Dembowski, Jeanne Kohl-Welles and Joe McDermott. Joining them are various local businesses.
“More money in hand can mean survival for many, to stabilize and plan for the future and avoid having to take on additional work,” Kohl-Welles said.
Exceptions for small businesses would be made, allowing those that meet specific employee counts and revenue to pay slightly under the county minimum wage.
Angela Burgess, a recruiting manager for Pacific Science Center, said that raising the minimum wage would mean retaining more staff, leading to less money spent on onboarding and hiring new employees.
“Having folks approach a more livable wage is beneficial to us all,” Burgess said.
Burgess also said that this, paired with competitive benefits packages, has been shown to increase diversity in the workplace. She said this ultimately contributes to the overall culture and pathways available to employees.
It has become clear that the road to squashing these crises is long and arduous.
Holzwarth said a good place to start might be matching wage increases to productivity and how well a company is dining in generating profits.
“You see that stagnating as these companies are able to collect more and more money, ” he said. “It’s something that would do wonders.”
