Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, Dori Monson debate $15 minimum wage
Mar 3, 2014, 2:20 PM | Updated: 4:06 pm
The battle for a $15 minimum wage in Seattle is heating up as Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant urged supporters to join her at Wednesday’s Town Hall.
“I encourage all supporters of 15, all fast food workers, all retail workers, all human service workers to come early, put your name on the list, and testify about what $15 an hour would mean to you and your family,” she said in a video released promoting the event.
One of the other prominent voices in the call for a $15 an hour minimum wage sat down with KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson on Monday.
Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer has emerged as one of the strongest voices in support of the $15 minimum wage campaign. He’s said before and reiterated for Monson that, “The fundamental law of capitalism is that if workers don’t have any money, businesses don’t have any customers.”
But Monson doesn’t see it being the responsibility of government to intervene.
“This is where you and I differ so much because you believe that managing it is some level of governmental involvement,” said Monson. “I believe that managing it […] is you make yourself. You acquire the job skills. You acquire the talents that make you marketable to an employer.”
The two spent a full hour debating the issue:
