Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Crushing Business in Seattle

As if a record minimum wage in Seattle isn't enough, the office responsible for enforcing Seattle’s expanding labor laws needs $6 million in 2017 to cover its operations. On Wednesday, Seattle City Council members will be considering a new fee on businesses to fund it.

Under a proposal by City Council member Lisa Herbold, the city would levy a new annual fee on businesses specifically for funding the Office of Labor Standards — currently paid for through the city’s general fund. City Council’s District 3 rep Kshama Sawant and others have repeatedly called for OLS to receive more funding to better enforce and educate the public on Seattle’s minimum wage law.

Under the proposal, the fee would be applied to businesses with five or more employees. In order to generate the office’s estimated $6 million operating budget in 2017, the city would need to levy a fee of $22.47 per employee.

 -RW

(via Capitol Hill Seattle)

2 comments:

  1. That $22.47 per employee will be much less than the time needed to file forms, have spreadsheets of who was employed, from when to when, and for how many hours. I think the numbing detail needed to assess and collect that tax "fairly" will cost far more than the tax.

    The bureaucrats will exult in the detail and in the frequent on-site reviews needed to catch and punish the "cheaters".

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  2. I live in the CSSC (Corrupt Socialist State of Connecticut). Like California, the governor and the bureaucrats are trying to see how many small businesses they can drive from the state. But it always makes me wonder: as they drive the productive taxpayers from their municipalities, who do they think are going to pay their goldplated pensions in the future? Or are they all just assuming federal bailouts?

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