The $15 an hour minimum wage got another twist this week with a bill introduced in the state Senate. Sen. Mark Miloscia, R-Federal Way, would take away local authority to raise the minimum wage while pegging the statewide minimum wage to new standards.

It’s an idea that has merit and deserves attention.

Seattle voters last year approved a $15 an hour minimum wage, which will be phased in over several years depending on such things as company size. Under Miloscia’s plan, the state’s minimum wage instead would rise based on urban inflation and personal income growth. Miloscia says those factors would boost the minimum wage about 45 cents each year. It would take longer to reach $15, but it would get there faster than under the state formula now.

That likely won’t sit well with backers of the $15 an hour wage, but a statewide system makes sense.

The problem with local options is they can produce confusion and sometimes unintended consequences when one city bumps up against another. That was the case some years back regarding blood-alcohol levels that would trigger a DUI in Bellevue and Redmond. A motorist having some drinks in a restaurant in the Overlake area could drive legally on the Bellevue side of 148th Avenue Northeast. Yet, just across the street was Redmond, where the amount of alcohol in the blood could trigger a DUI.

Likewise, a business in Seattle, having to pay a higher-than-elsewhere minimum wage, would be at a competitive disadvantage with a similar company operating a few short feet away in a city without the higher wage.

Sure, most businesses further within the Seattle city limits won’t face that situation. But the $15 an hour minimum wage already has caused one Seattle company to say it’s transferring some manufacturing jobs to Nevada.

Given the Democratic control of the state House, Miloscia’s bill probably will have tough sledding there. But the fact remains we have a statewide minimum wage now. If it needs to be raised higher and faster, then that should be statewide as well.

—Craig Groshart, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter