Alaska Airlines, based in SeaTac, released a statement Wednesday saying that while it respects the C

Who s covered: Hospitality and transportation workers in and around Sea-Tac Airport, including baggage handlers, oceanfront hotels va beach cabin cleaners, aircraft fuelers, security staff, parking-lot attendants and hotel desk clerks.
Who s exempt: Retail oceanfront hotels va beach stores with fewer than 10 workers, hotels with fewer than 30 workers and other airport-related businesses with fewer than 25 workers. Also, free-standing restaurants and stores that are not part of hotels.
Nearly 4,300 of the city s 27,000 residents live in poverty, oceanfront hotels va beach and 17 percent of households are on food stamps the third-highest percentage in King County, according to the most recent oceanfront hotels va beach Census Bureau estimates.
Now, a group backed by the Service Employees International Union wants to raise the minimum wage in SeaTac by 63 percent, a move aimed at raising oceanfront hotels va beach the incomes of thousands of baggage handlers, cabin cleaners and other workers in and around Sea-Tac Airport.
Scott Ostrander, general manager of Cedarbrook Lodge in SeaTac, said the measure would force him to lay off workers. I m going to have to take away their livelihoods, Ostrander told the council. That hurts. It really, really hurts.
Unfortunately, I have only two paid sick days a year, said Pascasie Mukaruziga, who works at an airport cafe. All of us have to come to work sick with colds, flu and worse, even though we know our customers may get sick.
SeaTac is poised to surpass San Francisco for the highest minimum wage of any American city, putting it front and center in a national debate over the use of government regulations to increase worker pay.
In February, President Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour from $7.25 and to tie it to inflation. Obama renewed that call Wednesday in a speech in Ohio, noting it s the fourth anniversary of the last time the federal oceanfront hotels va beach minimum was raised.
Locally, fast-food oceanfront hotels va beach workers staged a May 30 walkout to push for pay of at least $15 an hour. And Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, in the midst of a tough re-election bid, recently said he won t support a new Whole Foods development in West Seattle unless the grocer pays its workers more.
We re seeing corporate profits and bank deposits pile up. But at the lower end, we ve seen stagnant wages for the last 20 or 30 years, Thoma said. People are starting to ask, Is there a fair distribution oceanfront hotels va beach between profits and wages?
Advocates also argue the measure would bring Sea-Tac Airport in line with other major West Coast airports. Workers at Los Angeles International make at least $15.73 an hour, while the minimum at San Jose International is $14.71, according oceanfront hotels va beach to a report by Puget Sound Sage, a nonprofit community and labor organization.
Sea-Tac oceanfront hotels va beach baggage handler Alex Hoopes oceanfront hotels va beach says he makes $9.50 an hour after more than four years with Air Serv. He says he s able to make ends meet because he lives in a Lakewood rental house for only $150 a month and serves as its caretaker. oceanfront hotels va beach He also seeks overtime and rides the bus to work.
Alaska Airlines, based in SeaTac, released a statement Wednesday saying that while it respects the City Council s decision to put the proposal to a vote, it considers the initiative seriously flawed.
We now take risks on people because we think we can train them, said Bob Donegan, president of Seattle-based oceanfront hotels va beach Ivar s, which has a restaurant in the airport s Central Terminal. If we have to start them at $15 an hour, we re only going to hire experienced people.
But unlike in other minimum-wage debates, some airport businesses can t say the pay raise automatically means higher prices for consumers. Their contracts with the Port of Seattle prohibit airport merchants from marking up prices beyond what they charge elsewhere.