There’s a bill to raise the minimum wage in the state to $12, and it got a hearing in the House Labor Committee yesterday.
Washington, one of nine states where minimum-wage raise bills have been introduced in 2015, would go from $9.47 an hour to $12 in a series of 50-cent hikes every Jan. 1 under the bill.
House Labor Chairman Mike Sells, D-Everett, said the bill “has a lot better chance in the House” than last year’s failed attempt for a $12 minimum wage because it phases in the raise slower. He is one of 41 co-sponsors of the bill, all Democrats. It could face longer odds in the Republican-led Senate, where all but one of the 20 names attached to the bill are from the minority Democrats.
If you’re interested in writing your legislator and telling them, politely, that you support this bill, you can find them here. Either ask you member of the House to support the one that just got the hearing, or your Senator that you’d like the bill to get a hearing. If you’d like to contact a member of the House Labor Committee, you can find them here.