Safeway Warns Seattle: New Employment Tax Could Turn Neighborhoods Into Food Deserts

Tuesday, May 1, 2018
By Paul Martin

by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Mon, 04/30/2018

A new employment tax proposed by the Seattle City Council would charge roughly $500 per employee based in the city. And though it would only apply to the city’s largest companies, many of them are complaining to the press – some with good reason – about how the tax would discourage employment and ultimately damage the city’s economy.

The tax would only apply to businesses earning $20 million in revenue within the city limits – a group that includes roughly 585 companies, about 3% of the total number operating in the city, according to CNNMoney.

Businesses would be required to pay 26 cents per man hour per employee worked within the city limits, excluding vacation pay and sick time.

To what we imagine would be the delight of the Trump administration, Amazon would bear the brunt of the new tax. The e-commerce giant would be forced to contribute some $20 million annually on behalf of its nearly 45,000 employees in Seattle. Of course, Amazon will have a difficult time arguing that it can’t afford the tax after it smashed expectations in its latest quarterly earnings report. And with the city facing an unemployment rate of 3.8%, even lower than the nationwide rate of 4.1%.

The city says it would use the money to build affordable housing and also provide emergency shelter services to at-risk and homeless individuals.

But Amazon told CNNMoney that it has a better plan to help the homeless.

Amazon, which declined to comment on the proposal, notes that it already contributes economically in many ways to Seattle. For example, it will provide a permanent location for a shelter in one of its new office buildings by 2020. It would be run by the nonprofit Mary’s Place, which already had temporary use of two vacant Amazon buildings to shelter the homeless since 2016.

Starbucks did not respond to a request for comment.

Prosperous big businesses can in turn generate a lot of economic activity and revenue for their host city. And they may donate goods, services or money to critical social causes.

But the co-sponsors of the bill note that a major cause of homelessness is the higher cost of housing that results when more workers move to a city for jobs that pay more than long-time residents have been earning. And the demand to build affordable housing doesn’t keep pace.

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