Mark Harmsworth says Washington’s affordability crisis demands smarter solutions, not more minimum wage fever
Mark Harmsworth
Washington Policy Center
Washington state’s affordability crisis is hitting households hard, and a recent report highlights the growing struggle to cover basic needs. A Seattle Times article, citing the United for ALICE report, reveals that 41% of U.S. households, including many in Washington, can’t afford essentials like housing, food, and transportation, even with recent wage increases. Meanwhile, analysis from the Washington Policy Center argues that relentless minimum wage hikes, like those in King County ($20.29/hour) and Bellingham ($18.66/hour), exacerbate this problem by reducing employment and purchasing power.
Comparing these two perspectives reveals a harsh truth, revealed in the ALICE report, raising the minimum wage doesn’t deliver the promised relief and often leaves workers worse off.
The ALICE report shows that despite significant pay bumps for low-wage workers since 2019, particularly in food services, many still can’t make ends meet. In Washington, where the cost of living is among the nation’s highest, a renter needs $30.33/hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30% of their income on housing. In Seattle, this jumps to $40.38/hour, far above the state’s $16.66 minimum wage or even Seattle’s $20.76. The report notes that inflation has outpaced wage growth, eroding purchasing power. For example, Seattle-area inflation rose 5.4% from 2022 to 2023, while wages grew only 4.9%. This gap leaves workers, even those earning above minimum wage, struggling to afford basics.
The Washington Policy Center has shown that minimum wage increases, while well-intentioned, create unintended consequences. The analysis points to real-world evidence. When California mandated a $20/hour minimum for fast-food workers, businesses like Rubio’s Coastal Grill closed 48 locations, and In-N-Out Burger raised prices overnight. In Washington, restaurant owners report similar pressures. Higher wages mean businesses must cut hours, reduce staff, or pass costs to consumers, which fuels inflation and shrinks purchasing power further.
The ALICE report’s data supports this. Despite historic wage gains, 4.53% for low-wage jobs from June 2020 to June 2025, per the Economic Policy Institute, the cost-of-living increases have outstripped higher wages. The result? Workers’ real income buys less, and businesses, facing finite revenue, respond by cutting jobs or hours. A University of Washington study on Seattle’s minimum wage hike found that low-wage workers with fewer hours saw little net benefit, as employers offset costs by reducing schedules.
The disconnect is clear. Minimum wage hikes don’t address the root issue, the cost of living. They create a vicious cycle of higher prices, fewer jobs, and less purchasing power. Policymakers should focus on reducing regulatory burdens and increasing housing supply to lower costs, not mandating wages that strain businesses and workers alike.
Washington’s affordability crisis demands smarter solutions, not more minimum wage fever.
Mark Harmsworth is the director of the Small Business Center at the Washington Policy Center.
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“The disconnect is clear. Minimum wage hikes don’t address the root issue, the cost of living. They create a vicious cycle of higher prices, fewer jobs, and less purchasing power.”
What a dishonest argument which completely makes a world of greys flatline into an event horizon of black and white mentality.
YES, I shall grant you that if wages are raised but not in proportion to or greater than the overall percentage raise of COL that those raised wages will NOT cover all the costs. But to imply that people getting higher wages creates less purchasing power is quite offensive to the countless working-class Washingtonians who have worked at local businesses where the business owner seems deaf, dumb and blind to how much people are struggling, and still makes profit. So we don’t deserve more food, more discretionary income? You’re implying that more discretionary income leads to less purchasing power, and that is never true for someone in poverty. AGAIN, YES if wages aren’t raised high enough it won’t solve COL or income inequality. But can you make the argument that min wage workers are supposed to be grateful for a world where wages don’t increase?
Min wages have been indexed neither to the overall COL nor the level of productivity of the Average American worker for nearly three decades now. The federal minimum wage has not been risen since 1997. Are you suggesting that it’s OKAY for workers everywhere to see rent, childcare, healthcare, insurance for car and home and rental, groceries raised, but RAISING WAGES IS SOMETHING TO BE IGNORED OR ABSOLUTELY AVOIDED? If businesses’ first impulse at raised costs is to fire people who were loyal to them, then you can’t claim that any of us in Washington have to care about your bottom line, because you simply don’t care about us.
Your suggestion to fix this? :
“Policymakers should focus on reducing regulatory burdens and increasing housing supply to lower costs, not mandating wages that strain businesses and workers alike.”
Building need housing could take decades, full stop. Letting businesses run without regulations leads to disasters like how PGE in CA led to forest fires because they couldn’t even bother to maintain their own power lines WHILE THEY RAISED RATES FOR ENERGY!! So I guess when we become homeless cuz McDonald’s pays us poverty, we are supposed to wait patiently for housing we won’t be able to afford because we can’t even afford rent, and then get a jail sentence for public camping? Your “solution” is years in the making, while death is a more certain prospect for the countless min wage workers you seem to have neglectful contempt for.
What is the responsibility of business owners and multi-billion dollar corporations who use our bodies in Washington state as labor and slave, while they have historic profits? McDonalds; Starbucks; Wal-Mart; local “ma and pas” who say you are family but only because they mistreat you.. hell I worked at a law firm for three years and I left with $13/hr and only stayed alive because of foodbanks… they get profits, while I get homelessness? I ask all these questions without any hope you will give me a reasonable answer, because you demonstrated so little reason in your original piece; I write these questions to represent all those in Washington, past and current and future citizens, who have been and shall be continually used by companies whose bottom-lines you care so much about, while we suffer as a result.
UNIONS SAVE US! ORGANIZE YOUR WORKPLACE, and ask your bosses how many boats and homes they have purchased since the covid pandemic started.
***Shane Kwiatkowski (she/they)***, proud raised Washingtonian and proud Pacific NWer, housing advocate, caregiver, pagan, and queer person who has labored in this region her/their whole life