‘When the price goes up, people buy less’: Curley rips Seattle’s gig worker minimum wage law

KIRO host John Curley discussed the impact of the $26 minimum wage law that went into effect for gig workers in Seattle, where major companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash have had to implement new fees to balance out the extra costs for workers, thus raising prices too high for many consumers.

“What [Seattle] did is say, ‘Well, you got to pay them this amount of money.’ So then Uber Eats goes, ‘Well, then how do we pay them? Because we’re not making that much on this sort of thing. Three to four cents is the margin on every dollar,’ Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “The state or city comes in and says, ‘You have to pay these people a certain amount of money.’ So, Uber throws a $5 fee on top, so the price keeps going up.

“Then what happens? Well, of course, what happens is then the number of people using Uber Eats for delivery goes down, the businesses lose the delivery of the product, and then the people who are supposed to deliver this stuff, they lose money as well,” he continued. “The idea is that a third party decides you have to pay this person a certain amount of money, and then what do you know, when the price of something goes up, people buy less of it.”

Curley argues the added fees ultimately hurt the workers the law was meant to help

Curley continued to discuss how the minimum wage law’s ripple effects ultimately harmed gig workers, consumers, and businesses.

“They just slapped $5 on top, and then that’s what everybody got upset about,” Curley said. “The beauty of being a gig worker is you work as much as you want to work, and that’s the deal, that’s what the price is. Allow them to determine what they’re going to pay, and then the person has to determine if it’s worth it to make $12. What are the benefits? Well, you can work whenever you want, pick up a little extra cash, and if I’m not meeting my expenses, get another job if it doesn’t work. But a third party coming in saying you must get paid $26 an hour because that’s what you deserve never works.

“This is another form of price controls, a third party coming in to determine the value of that worker; he must be paid, or she must be paid, and now they’re not getting any money on the thing,” he continued. “The employer says I can’t pay $26, so what happens? The employer doesn’t get an employee, and the guy who offered to do it for $18 doesn’t make anything. So, how does anybody benefit other than the government, thinking they’re doing good for everyone? It doesn’t work.”

Curley draws a parallel to Seattle’s minimum wage and the restaurants it’s closed

Curley drew a comparison to the city’s minimum wage with all of the restaurants that have closed down in recent years, noting that employers are struggling to pay their workforce even if they don’t “generate enough productivity in order to be paid that.”

“This city of Seattle, with its stupid minimum wage. By the way, enjoy all the restaurants that close down every single week, and that is because of minimum wage,” Curley said. “In fact, in Washington, D.C., they tried to get away from the livable wage they put in place, and everybody in there protested. There are restaurants and bars that are like, ‘You’re killing us, we’re closing down because you’re forcing us to pay somebody something that we can’t generate the money for, and they don’t generate enough productivity in order to be paid that.”

“Plus, isn’t the minimum wage in Seattle like $21.50?” KIRO Producer Joe Wallace asked. “They’re saying the gig worker minimum wage is $26, so if you’re paying that much more than minimum wage, if that’s accurate, then the competition for those jobs is going to skyrocket.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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