OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state lawmakers have shelved a series of bills that would lower wages at the bottom of the income scale in an effort to spur private-sector hiring.
The five Republican-sponsored bills failed to come up for a House committee vote Tuesday ahead of a key deadline.
Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, said his goal in sponsoring the bills was to encourage employers to hire more workers, particularly in struggling areas of eastern Washington.
"The little guys are what's getting hurt," said Condotta. "They can't push the prices up any more. They can't complete."
Among the bills was one to implement a tip-credit allowing restaurant owners to pay waiters and other tipped employees less than the minimum wage.
Washington state restaurants operate with smaller staffs than the national average and would likely hire 40,000 additional workers if waiters' pay was cut sufficiently, said Anthony Anton, president of the Washington Restaurant Association.
"Dealing with the impact of the minimum wage without any exceptions that are recognized in other states is voted as the number one issue for 90 percent of our members," said Anton.
Marilyn Watkins of the Economic Opportunity Institute said most economists agree that there is no correlation between a high minimum wage and increased unemployment.
"Attempts to reduce wages through tip credits, training wages or reduced cost-of-living increases hurt workers and their families and the businesses that they patronize," said Watkins.
Over 40 states have tip credits, with waiters in many states paid under three dollars an hour.
Another of the bills would have lowered the annual increases in Washington state's minimum wage by swapping the consumer price index to which the increases are linked from one tied to clerical workers and wage earners to one indexed to all urban dwellers, including the unemployed.
In 1988, state voters passed Initiative 688, also known as the Raise the Minimum Wage Act, which indexed the state's minimum wage to the CPI starting in 2001. On Jan. 1, Washington's minimum wage rose 37 cents to $9.04, the highest of any state in the country.
As in Washington, Oregon's minimum wage is indexed to the CPI, rising to $8.80 an hour as of Jan. 1. Tip credits have been a partisan issue in the state as recently as the 2010 governor campaign when Democrat John Kitzhaber hammered Republican Chris Dudley on the issue and won a close race.
The other bills would have suspended minimum wage hikes in periods of high unemployment, made it easier for employers to defend themselves against complaints of unpaid wages and allowed small businesses to pay younger workers a training wage.
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Jonathan Kaminsky can be reached at http://twitter.com/jekaminsky
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