Ed Murray’s slogan should be ‘When the facts don’t fit the narrative, find new facts!’

The cult of $15 per hour minimum wage has hit a new low.

When the highest minimum wage in the nation was passed into law, the mayor and city council agreed they would commission an independent study on the effects of the new law.

Last week, Ed Murray was tipped off on the results of that study – and they were devastating.

It turns out the increased minimum wage is hurting the lowest income workers. A lot. The average low-wage worker is losing $125/month because of the new law. They saw a tiny increase in hourly pay, but that was more than offset by a decrease in hours worked.

So, did Ed Murray, Kshama Sawant, Mike O’Brien, and all the rest admit they were wrong?

Of course not! Instead, they quickly spearheaded a new study by a Cal-Berkeley-prof that says the UW researchers’ data is all wrong.

There’s only one problem with the Cal-Berkeley study: it leaves out that the lead researcher is the founder of a group that is Socialist, anti-capitalist, and has never produced a study that was not favorable to minimum wage hikes. They are also funded by labor unions that have a vested interest in jacking up the minimum wage.

It is beyond sleazy that Ed Murray would cherry-pick (and have the public pay for) a Socialist/anti-Capitalist economist from California to refute the incredibly damaging UW researchers’ report. But he knows that, when he has staked so much of his political capital on a cause that hurts low-income workers by a significant margin, the truth would be politically devastating.

But, as always, our elected leaders don’t want to help the lowest-income workers. They want a catchphrase-slogan that they think will help their political careers. Hey, this is Seattle. When it comes to politics, who needs facts?

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