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Kshama Sawant, Seattle City Councilwoman: McDonald's Doesn't Need Time To Phase In $15 Minimum Wage

Seattle Councilwoman Blasts 'Loopholes' In $15 Minimum Wage Plan
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Senior Editor, HuffPost Live

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Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, an outspoken socialist, claimed a victory Thursday after Mayor Ed Murray announced a plan to hike the city's minimum wage to $15, which Sawant was a driving force behind. But she told HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski that she isn't totally happy with the plan, which gives big corporations years to phase in the new wage.

The mayor's plan allows companies with more than 500 employees three years to phase in the pay increase, and companies with health insurance will have four years. That means enormous businesses like McDonald's are able to delay paying their employees a fair wage even though the company has the profits to cover it now, Sawant said.

"The fact that all these loopholes exist in this recommendation shows that while business has lost the public debate on [$15 minimum wage], they are successful in using the backdoor mechanism in order to push for watering down the deal," she said.

Sawant was adamant that the fight for better minimum wage isn't over, and she'll be working to cut down on the amount of time the biggest businesses have to implement it.

"Every year of phase-in is another year that a worker has to live in poverty," she said. "So we have to keep fighting. We will keep building the pressure from below."

Seattle's city council must still vote on whether to pass the minimum wage plan, but The Seattle Times has declared that Sawant has "already won."

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Kshama Sawant below.

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Before You Go

8 States With The Highest Minimum Wage
8. Massachusetts(01 of08)
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Minimum wage: $8.00 (tied for 7th highest)Poverty rate: 11.9% (11th lowest)Union participation: 14.3% (12th highest)Cost of living: 8th highestUnlike the many states that tie minimum wages to inflation to ensure earnings keep up with living costs, in Massachusetts the minimum wage has not changed since 2008. The cost of living in Massachusetts is hardly low. Overall, the state is one of the most expensive places to live in the country. The cost of health care, for example, is higher than in every state except for Alaska. That burden, however, may not be felt as much by the state’s population because more than 95% of residents are covered by health insurance, the most in the nation. Other high costs may still be affordable for many living in Massachusetts. Median household income last year was among the highest in the United States, at $65,339. Union participation in the state is especially strong. Roughly 64% of public workers are union members, trailing only New York.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:WikiMedia:)
7. California(02 of08)
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Minimum wage: $8.00 (tied for 7th highest)Poverty rate: 17.0% (18th highest)Union participation: 17.2% (6th highest)Cost of living: 6th highestCalifornia’s minimum wage of $8 per hour is tied with Massachusetts as the seventh highest in the nation. This should change, as California’s legislature recently approved plans to increase the state’s minimum wage to $9 per hour next year and to $10 per hour by 2016, higher than any other state. The state is among the nation’s most expensive, especially due to the high cost of housing, which trails only Hawaii and New York, according to MERIC. While California’s poverty rate was just 18th highest among the 50 states, poverty remains an issue. When extending poverty measures to take into account families and individuals that are not reflected in standard poverty rates, California had the nation’s highest “supplemental poverty measure” from 2010 and 2012, at 23.8% versus 16% nationally, according to a recent report from the Census Bureau.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:WikiMedia:)
6. Nevada(03 of08)
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Minimum wage: $8.25 (tied for 4th highest)Poverty rate: 16.4% (19th highest)Union participation: 14.8% (10th highest)Cost of living: 24th lowestWorkers in Nevada must either be paid $8.25 an hour, or the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour if they receive health benefits. Nevada also indexes its minimum wage to annual changes in inflation or the federal minimum wage, whichever increases by more. But because the federal minimum was raised in 2009, the state has not increased its minimum wage in recent years. Still, the state’s minimum wage remains among the nation’s highest. Nearly 15% of the state’s workers, including 11.1% of the state’s private workers, were union members last year, 10th and fourth highest nationwide, respectively.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:WikiMedia:)
5. Illinois(04 of08)
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Minimum wage: $8.25 (tied for 4th highest)Poverty rate: 14.7% (24th lowest)Union participation: 14.6% (11th highest)Cost of living: 21st lowestOverall, it is cheaper to live in Illinois than most other states. The state’s minimum wage is the highest in the Midwest at $8.25, tied with Nevada and Connecticut. Even so, Governor Pat Quinn has advocated raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour. In some sectors, union membership may be strong enough to improve working conditions without the government. For example, nearly 40% of private construction workers are union members, by far the most compared to other states. Despite the well-being suggested by the relatively low cost of living and the high wages — typical Illinois households earn more than the national median — the state still faces challenges. As of October, the state’s 8.9% unemployment rate was one of the highest in the country.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:WikiMedia:)
4. Connecticut(05 of08)
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Minimum wage: $8.25 (tied for 4th highest)Poverty rate: 10.7% (4th lowest)Union participation: 14.0% (14th highest)Cost of living: 4th highestIn May, the Connecticut House passed a bill to increase the state’s minimum wage to $9 per hour by 2015. Governor Dan Malloy noted the bill would make life “easier for working people in [the] state without adversely impacting the business community.” However, as of the third quarter of this year, Connecticut was still one of the most expensive states in the nation to live. The state ranked at least sixth highest in every major component factored into the cost of living, including ranking fourth highest for groceries and second highest for transportation, according to MERIC. Income inequality in the state also remains extreme. Last year, only New York had a higher Gini coefficient than Connecticut — the coefficient measures income distribution. The wealthiest 5% of Connecticut households accounted for 24.6% of all state earnings as of 2012, more than in any other state.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="60fe860fe4b06971f40989d8" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="6" data-vars-position-in-unit="11">Flickr</a>:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68063581@N03/11133257085" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="BToneVibes" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="60fe860fe4b06971f40989d8" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68063581@N03/11133257085" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="7" data-vars-position-in-unit="12">BToneVibes</a>)
3. Vermont(06 of08)
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Minimum wage: $8.60Poverty rate: 11.8% (10th lowest)Union participation: 10.7% (21st highest)Cost of living: 9th highestMinimum wage is $8.60 per hour in Vermont, the third highest in the nation. While a typical Vermont household income was higher than in most states last year, earnings do not go as far. The state’s fuel and food costs are among the highest in the nation. The minimum wage rate in Vermont is partly determined by inflation, as calculated by the consumer price index. The state labor department recalculates the appropriate wage every year. This year, the minimum wage is scheduled to increase by 13 cents to $8.73 an hour. As is usually the case nationwide, poverty in Vermont has been worse in urban areas. In Burlington, the state’s largest city, the city council implemented a livable wage ordinance in 2001. The ordinance set a minimum pay of $17.71 per hour when health insurance is not offered and $13.94 an hour when it is. Last year, less than 12% of households lived below the poverty line and only 6.5% of residents lacked health insurance, both among the best rates in the nation.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="60fe860fe4b06971f40989d8" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="3" data-vars-position-in-unit="8">Flickr</a>:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8250364@N03/11091846295" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="jjandames" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="60fe860fe4b06971f40989d8" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8250364@N03/11091846295" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="4" data-vars-position-in-unit="9">jjandames</a>)
2. Oregon (07 of08)
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Minimum wage: $8.95Poverty rate: 17.2% (15th highest)Union participation: 15.8% (9th highest)Cost of living: 13th highestDespite having the nation’s second highest minimum wage, take-home incomes in Oregon may be inadequate for many state residents. Median household income was lower than the national rate in 2012, at $49,161. More than one in five households relied on food stamps last year, the highest proportion in the country. Additionally, despite having a higher cost of living than the country as a whole, the state’s median income was just over $49,000, more than $2,000 less than the national median income. Soon, however, workers earning minimum wage can expect a moderate improvement. Starting January 1, 2014, the minimum wage will increase by 15 cents to $9.10 per hour. With the increase, minimum wage employees working 30 hours a week will earn an additional $234 annually, according to the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:WikiMedia:)
1. Washington (08 of08)
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Minimum wage: $9.19Poverty rate: 13.5% (19th lowest)Union participation: 18.5% (4th highest)Cost of living: 15th highestWashington has the highest minimum wage in the nation at $9.19 per hour. Recently, state officials certified a vote in favor of Proposition 1, the ballot measure to implement a $15 wage floor in the city of SeaTac. The new law, if passed, will affect roughly 6,000 airport and hotel employees in SeaTac, Washington. Union activity is strong in Washington, with 18.5% of the state’s workforce active union members, more than all but three other states. Union membership among those working in the manufacturing sector is the highest out of every state. Washington is also among America’s wealthier states, with a median household income of $57,573 as of 2012, versus a national median of $51,371.Read more at 24/7 Wall St. (credit:WikiMedia:)
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