Just dropped yesterday. Trump signed both an executive order and a proclamation renewing the H-1B $100k fee (seperate from the $103k fee DHS is introducing).

What they actually do:

• Renews the $100,000 fee requirement for certain new H-1B petitions (the one first imposed in 2025) for another year, through September 2027
• Requires State, Labor, and DHS to coordinate with Commerce, Education, and the SBA when reviewing H-1B petitions and labor condition applications
• Makes agencies factor in whether the employer has laid off (or plans to lay off) similarly situated American workers in the past year
• Gives DOL’s Wage and Hour Division 30 days to start reviewing previously filed labor condition applications for possible enforcement

This is the kind of move a lot of us have been waiting for. The $100k fee already hammered the big outsourcing firms, and now they’re pairing it with actual scrutiny of layoff history.

No more rubber-stamping petitions from companies that just canned a bunch of Americans and then claimed they couldn’t find anyone. This means companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Meta: yeah there's no safe harbor for them anymore.

Doesn’t shut the program down of course. But practically it sends a really strong message: hire Americans or they'll send the hammer down.

Folks, you can say whatever you want about Trump, but by God if these all go through the courts and pass I will be dancing from the rooftops. I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican or a pink elephant: you got to got to give Trump and his administration a huge amount of credit for this.

Maybe you don't like the war or you dislike what he's doing with ICE and deportations. Fine, it's your right to have that opinion. But this coming November if you vote Democrats into office, you're going to be undoing all the progress he's made towards our cause. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good!

• H1B Executive Order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/enhancing-program-integrity-and-integrity-and-interagency-coordination-in-the-administration-of-the-h-1b-nonimmigrant-visa-program/

• $100k Fee Renewal Proclamation: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers-faad/

#AI Summary of the executive order

Summary of the Executive Order (September 18, 2026)

President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order titled “Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program.”

Purpose

The order argues that the H-1B program—originally intended to bring in uniquely skilled foreign temporary workers to supplement the U.S. economy—has been widely abused by certain employers, third-party placement groups, and outsourcing firms. These abuses allegedly undercut American workers by:

• Paying H-1B holders significantly less than comparable U.S. workers (estimated gaps of $9,000–$20,000).
• Laying off skilled American workers (hundreds of thousands in tech from 2022–2026) and replacing them with lower-paid H-1B workers, sometimes requiring the laid-off Americans to train their replacements.
• Using H-1B workers as a bridge to offshore jobs.
• Creating national-security risks by discouraging Americans from STEM careers and enabling fraud.

The stated policy is to protect American workers and ensure the program serves the national interest.

Key Directives

• Interagency Coordination (Sec. 2): The Secretaries of State, Labor, and Homeland Security must coordinate with the Secretaries of Commerce and Education and the Small Business Administration Administrator when processing H-1B petitions, labor condition applications, and visas. The latter agencies must supply relevant wage, employment, academic, and economic data.
• Consideration of Layoffs (Sec. 3): Agencies must factor in whether a sponsoring employer has conducted (or plans) layoffs of similarly situated U.S. workers within the previous year when reviewing H-1B applications, petitions, and visas.
• Within 30 days, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division must begin reviewing prior labor condition applications for possible enforcement actions.
• Relevant authorities under the Immigration and Nationality Act are delegated to the Secretaries of State, Commerce, Labor, and Homeland Security to implement the order through rules, policies, or guidance.

General Provisions

Standard boilerplate: the order does not impair existing legal authorities, is subject to available appropriations, creates no enforceable rights, and includes a severability clause. Publication costs fall to the Department of Homeland Security.

AI summary of proclamation

Presidential Proclamation: Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers (issued September 18, 2026, by President Donald J. Trump).

This proclamation extends for 12 months (until 12:00 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2027) the restrictions first imposed by Proclamation 10973 of September 19, 2025. Those earlier measures targeted perceived abuses of the H-1B visa program for specialty-occupation temporary workers.

Key rationale

The H-1B program was intended to supplement (not replace) American workers with high-skilled talent. The administration argues it has been exploited—especially by IT staffing and outsourcing firms—to bring in large numbers of lower-paid, often entry-level foreign workers. This has allegedly suppressed wages, displaced U.S. workers (particularly recent STEM graduates), and made it harder to attract truly high-skilled talent. Related issues cited include ongoing elevated unemployment/underemployment among recent college graduates, wage disparities, fraud, and national-security concerns.

Core restriction

• Entry of H-1B nonimmigrants is restricted unless the petition is accompanied or supplemented by a $100,000 payment.
• The restriction applies to aliens outside the United States seeking to enter after the effective date (12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2026).
• Limited exceptions are available if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines that hiring particular individuals, company employees, or industry workers is in the national interest and does not threaten U.S. security or welfare.

Reported impacts of the 2025 measures (cited as justification for extension)

• Large IT outsourcing firms cut combined H-1B registrations by ~92% (from 24,946 to 2,055).
• Consular processing requests dropped nearly 97% between the FY 2025 and FY 2027 cap seasons.
• Shift toward higher-skilled/higher-paid workers: registrations for beneficiaries with at least a U.S. master’s degree rose from 45.1% (FY 2026) to 66.1% (FY 2027); higher wage-level offers increased while the lowest wage level fell.
• Over 700 petitions paid the $100,000 fee.
• Complementary rulemaking: DHS finalized a weighted selection process prioritizing higher-skilled/higher-paid applicants; DOL proposed rules to strengthen prevailing-wage protections.

Implementation and other provisions

Employers must document the payment; the State Department verifies it before approving visas. Relevant agencies must coordinate enforcement. Within 30 days after the next H-1B lottery, the Secretaries of State, Labor, Homeland Security, and the Attorney General must jointly recommend whether further extension is warranted. Standard legal/savings clauses apply.

In short, the proclamation continues a $100,000 fee barrier on most new H-1B entries from abroad for another year, citing measurable reductions in low-wage/low-skill usage and the persistence of the underlying labor-market problems.

Holy cow a lot has happened lately for getting rid of h1b in all but in law (as only Congress can do that).

Apparently Trump is soon to end the H4-EAD program. It's not yet a proposed rule, but if it gets to that state it will be likely less than 6 months before seeing all H4-EAD spouses without employment authorization anymore.

https://www.newsweek.com/some-h-1b-spouses-could-lose-work-permits-under-trump-proposal-12384927

Then there's the upcoming $103k H1B application fee, currently in proposed rule status. I don't know if it will survive the court challenges but let's hope so.

There's an upcoming proposed rule to modernize the requirements for PERM application and compliance.

Folks, I know some of you may think it's just midterm election pandering, but I will take the wins that I can. If even half of these changes stick: it will be awfully difficult for the next administration to justify undoing them: if and when that happens we need to make sure they don't do it quietly.

The h1b program is cooked, the H4-EAD program is cooked. Let's hope the OPT program follows.

The only candidate who sounds remotely normal is Nirav Sheth. He’s an Indian-American immigrant whose biography, for the most part, reads like that of your typical moderate Republican. While he hasn’t stated a clear position on pro-American H-1B reforms, I assume that, given his immigrant background, he’s probably not going to support restricting H-1B visas.

Every other option is completely outside the mainstream. Pramila Jayapal — another Indian-American immigrant — is probably the second-most reasonable-sounding candidate, but she has advocated for expanding H-1B programs rather than restricting them.

The other two candidates are genuinely extreme.

David Blomstrom is, and I say this without hyperbole, a Nazi sympathizer, a terrorist supporter, and someone who is openly pro-Iran and pro-Hamas. His views are about as anti-American as a candidate can possibly get. He is essentially a joke candidate rather than a serious political option.

Gwen Kirkland is a DSA member. The DSA is an organization that advocates for abolishing the Senate, open borders, and eliminating prisons and police. Many of its prominent leaders openly identify as communists and Marxist-Leninists. While her campaign may be milk toast progressive issues (Medicare for all, free college education, etc), the DSA isn't milk toast in any fashion: they vote on platform decisions as a block, and a DSA member congressional representative votes for what the DSA wants, not for what their district's constituents want.

In other words, she represents a political movement that is fundamentally anti-American and completely detached from mainstream American values.

So my choices are essentially three anti-American extremists and one candidate who sounds relatively normal but is likely pro-H-1B: Nirav Sheth.

That’s my “representation” in this district. If you’re in District 7, I hope you understand the frustration. At this point, I’m probably voting for Nirav Sheth. If nothing else, he can’t be worse than Jayapal.

##Nothing screams "anti-fascist" like planning your own coup to stop an imaginary one.

The Democratic Socialists of America and their "fellow travelers" constantly scream that the right is plotting to end democracy. Yet here they are, openly publishing a detailed "Socialist Project 2029" blueprint for exactly that: seizing total power through emergency measures, purges, and institutional subversion, all justified as the necessary response to a hypothetical right-wing Trumpist coup in 2028–29.

The irony is they're preemptively engineering their own authoritarian power grab to "defend" against a coup that hasn't happened (and that they seem eager to use as the perfect excuse). If the coup materializes, great, full throttle revolution. If it doesn't? Still proceed with the structural maneuvers anyway. Heads they win, tails democracy loses. Classic projection.

Their 2029 proposal is written by J. Ryder a Democratic Socialists of America member and leader, and T. E. Moon who is a communist writer and member of the DSA. You can find it here. It is also backed up here.

From the DSA proposal:

• Purge Congress: Arrest/detain/expel Republicans and conservative Democrats en masse under the 14th Amendment for "aiding" the (alleged) insurrection. Admit D.C. as a state and ram through emergency enabling acts with the newly compliant majority.

• Bypass checks and balances: Unilaterally adjourn Congress, flood the executive with recess appointments and "acting" officials, ignore court injunctions, and pack the Supreme Court with at least 10 new seats.

• Ideological cleansing of the state: Fire disloyal military brass and intelligence heads, install loyalists, create an "Anti-Fascist Prosecutorial Task Force" to target GOP politicians, donors, and opponents for treason, while issuing blanket pardons for left-wing activists.

• Economic and coercive takeover: Weaponize the NLRB for strikes and seizures, choke Wall Street, dissolve ICE/DHS, federalize police, and subordinate everything to "working-class" (i.e., socialist) control.

This isn't organic reform, but rather it's a step-by-step manual for capturing the state, inverting its institutions, and neutralizing opposition, all while calling it "people's power." The very tactics they accuse "fascists" of wanting.

The left's favorite insult is "fascist," yet their plan reads like a leftist Project 2029 for one-party dominance. How is this "democracy"? How is it not the authoritarian fascism they claim to oppose?

The corrupt attorney general in California changed the voter ID prop39 initiative from a relatively neutral sounding description that it has had for over a year, and that over a million people have put signatures for, to an obviously biased and negative sounding title that makes it sound like the initiative is trying to prevent citizens from voting.

If you weren't convinced there was election rigging before, you should be now. This is almost a smoking gun. Why would you change the title like this in an obvious attempt to sway voters, if you didn't have something to hide, if you weren't getting votes from non-citizen or dead people or even non-existent people? If you were squeaky clean you'd have no reason to change the language of an initiative like this.

(also how is giving initiative titles a non-neutral description even legal?)

##ORIGINAL PROP 39 TITLE (September 19, 2025):

ESTABLISHES ADDITIONAL VOTER IDENTIFICATION AND CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. This measure would amend the California Constitution to further require that voters present government-issued identification at the polls or the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when voting by mail; the State provide voter identification cards on request; and elections officials annually report percentage of each county's voters whose citizenship they have verified.

##REVISED PROP 39 TITLE (July 21, 2026):

PROHIBITS CITIZENS FROM VOTING UNLESS THEY PRESENT GOVERNMENT-ISSUED IDENTIFICATION. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Invalidates mail ballots that do not have last four digits of designated government-issued identification number written on envelope. Prohibits in-person voting without presenting government-issued identification.

By the way: all the documents required to verify citizenship for work are the exact same documents required to verify citizenship for voting.

So, when you claim they may have trouble finding the documents they need: how do they have jobs? Seriously! You either need work authorization documents from the federal government (in which case the feds know you're not a citizen, so those people are irrelevant), or you need to be a citizen to work in the United States. It's required that you prove you're a citizen too. So again: are we just arguing about people who've never had a job? Because that would be the only citizen that would be relevant to the discussion.

Also: California provides free IDs for the homeless and reduced fee IDs for anyone who qualifies for welfare. So anyone claiming "poll tax" you're either uninformed or just purposely disengenous.

UPDATE: everyone saying non-citizens being on the voter rolls is not happening:

A report just came out from New Jersey where they revealed 6,600 non citizens were on their voter rolls, and 400 of them voted in the last election.

>"New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday that her administration uncovered a mistake in the state's Motor Vehicle Commission where 6,600 non-citizens were added to the state's voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024. An investigation has determined fewer than 400 actually ended up voting"

From: https://abc7.com/post/new-jersey-gov-mikie-sherrill-reveals-mvc-mistake-registered-6600-citizens-vote/19557471/

Now I'm waiting for the Democrats to try and convince me "yes it's happening, but here's why it's a good thing."

#Justice Department Launches Investigation to Determine Whether Harvard’s China-Based Financial Aid Programs Discriminate Against American Students

https://youtu.be/F2gm_GWVtlc

So apparently there's about $650 million dollars in donations coming from China, and these funds are earmarked as requiring preferential admissions to Chinese students. This is illegal Title VI discrimination according to the DOJ civil rights division.

I mean this is just as bad as rich kids buying their way into admissions if they don't qualify on the merits. Except it's worse: I'd rather there be natural born rich Americans that are given preferential treatment by Harvard than international students.

This is yet another small piece of the pie where they screw over the ability for Americans in America to get a good career and education.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-jobs-are-for-americans-not-foreign-fraudsters-vance-amid-h-1b-probe-11750743

> "An official statement by the Labour Department said the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) under the Department of Labour has uncovered widespread schemes in which employers and labour brokers submitted fraudulent applications, exploiting foreign workers through coercive wage-kickback arrangements."

Full article copied below

> 'US Jobs Are For Americans, Not Foreign Fraudsters': Vance Amid H-1B Probe

> The H-1B work visa programme, long used by US companies to hire skilled foreign professionals, is now at the centre of one of the Trump administration's biggest fraud probes yet, and US Vice President JD Vance has a warning for those he accused of gaming the system at the cost of American jobs.

> During a stop at the Wisconsin Air National Guard's 128th Air Refuelling Wing base in Milwaukee on Wednesday, Vance told the crowd that the Labor Department had already began issuing subpoenas and opening investigations into what he called "foreign fraudsters" misusing the visa system.

> "We have a program called the H-1B visa program. This goes to show how broad-based the fraud task force is we're... we're fighting for your taxpayer money, but we're also making sure that fraudsters don't take advantage of these visa programs,” he said.

> Vance said the programme was originally a route for "a brilliant technology person, or a brilliant scientist, or a brilliant doctor" to work legally in the United States. That purpose, Vance argued, has been stretched too far.

> "But you know what's happening way too much is that big corporations and fraudsters overseas are using this program to undercut the wages of American workers. So, you know what we're doing in the Trump administration? We're saying no more. If you are trying to take advantage of that visa program, you are not allowed into the United States of America," he said.

> "Here's a simple principle, ladies and gentlemen: American jobs ought to go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters, and the Department of Labour is fighting back against it," Vance added.

> Vance's statement follows the launch of the Trump administration's first major probe into suspected fraud within the H-1B and PERM visa categories, both routes used by US employers to hire foreign workers for specialised roles.

> Labour Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito told Fox News that his office had begun issuing subpoenas as part of a large-scale look into suspected labour trafficking and abuse of foreign worker visa programmes. "We are going to take aggressive action, which we believe is probably the most aggressive action against foreign labour fraud by an Inspector General, this administration," he said.

> D'Esposito said whistleblower tips had pointed investigators towards "some of the biggest companies, like Cognizant", and that his team would "track down every lead".

> The investigators will "work side by side with the president and vice president's fraud task force" during the course of the probe, D'Esposito said.

> An official statement by the Labour Department said the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) under the Department of Labour has uncovered widespread schemes in which employers and labour brokers submitted fraudulent applications, exploiting foreign workers through coercive wage-kickback arrangements.

> "These abuses undermine the integrity of Department of Labour programs designed to address genuine labour shortages - not to line the pockets of bad actors at the expense of American jobs," the statement said.

I believe the portrayal of white people being worried about white replacement often relies on caricatures and straw-man arguments. Nobody takes the time to actually look into the perspective seriously. That's what I'm doing here to hopefully gain some understanding.

The reality is that the demographic composition of the United States is shifting significantly. Non-Hispanic White Americans have gone from roughly 80% of the population in Western states in 1970 to about 46% today, making them a minority in that region. Similar declines have occurred across other regions:

Non-Hispanic White population share by U.S. region

These changes are driven by a combination of low native birth rates, higher immigration levels, and differential fertility patterns. For example, Pew Research has noted that a notable share of recent U.S. births (around 9% in 2023) were to mothers who were unauthorized immigrants or on temporary legal status.

Globally, the share of people of European descent has also declined sharply, from estimates around 25-28% in 1950 to roughly 8-12% today.

Global percentage of people of European Descent

• 1950: 28%

• 1980: 18%

• 2000: 14%

• 2026: 8%

These shifts are more than abstract statistics; they are reshaping American culture and daily life. America’s culture is worth celebrating and preserving.

It is the culture that produced the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution: the foundational documents that enshrined individual liberty, limited government, and the rule of law. It powered the Industrial Revolution’s innovations, built the world’s leading economy, landed humans on the moon, invented the internet, and created unmatched opportunities for upward mobility. American culture has championed freedom of speech, religious liberty, entrepreneurial spirit, and scientific inquiry. It has attracted millions precisely because it delivers prosperity, personal agency, and hope for a better life.

This culture draws deeply from Judeo-Christian inspired values: the inherent dignity of every individual, the importance of justice and moral accountability, compassion for the vulnerable, the work ethic, the nuclear family as a cornerstone of society, and the idea that rights come from a Creator or nature rather than the state. These principles helped shape the American experiment and continue to foster a society that values redemption, forgiveness, and service to others; even as the nation maintains separation of church and state and welcomes people of all faiths (or none).

While American identity has always incorporated diverse influences, and culture evolves, there are observable differences across ethnic and cultural groups in family structures, values, religious practices, political priorities, and social norms. Many Americans across the political spectrum support legal immigration and the contributions immigrants bring. The core concern is the pace and scale of recent inflows.

When immigration occurs at a more moderate rate, newcomers have time to learn the language, adopt core American norms, and integrate successfully. However, the surge of over 10+ million encounters and entries in recent years has strained resources and integration capacity. Large-scale, rapid influxes often lead to ethnic enclaves rather than broad assimilation. This can create parallel societies where imported cultural practices compete with, rather than enrich, the host culture.

The result, for many long-time residents, feels like a form of cultural displacement: the familiar country of their upbringing (with its unique blend of freedoms, innovations, and shared values) is being transformed faster than they can adapt. Reasonable people can debate the benefits and trade-offs of high immigration levels, but dismissing these demographic and cultural concerns as mere bigotry overlooks measurable realities and legitimate anxieties about preserving a cohesive national identity that has delivered extraordinary achievements for its people and the world.

Sources:

Pew Research - Non-hispanic white people were 80% of the western States population in 1970 and now down to 46%

Pew Research - About 9% of U.S. births in 2023 were to unauthorized or temporary legal immigrant mothers.

UN - Globally, the percentage of white people has gone from 28% in 1950 to 8% of the world's population in 2026

> "White culture doesn't exist"

"White culture" absolutely exists, just like any other broad ethnic/cultural category. It's not a monolith, but it refers to the shared heritage of European-descended peoples and, in the American context, the Western civilization they built here.

No one says "Black culture doesn't exist" or "Asian culture doesn't exist" despite massive internal diversity. Yet when Europeans or their American descendants point to their achievements and want to preserve the culture that made them possible, it's suddenly invisible or taboo.

Dismissing "White culture" is a rhetorical trick to avoid discussing demographic change and assimilation.

Every group has a right to value and transmit its heritage. Rapid, large-scale immigration that prevents integration risks diluting the very culture that attracted people here in the first place.

I'm proud of that heritage and want to see it continue because it has delivered extraordinary freedom and opportunity for millions, including future immigrants who assimilate into it.

EDIT, I had to add this because it is absolutely what I've been saying. Credit to u/PriceOfObedience comment:

TrueUnpopularOpinion/comments/1uvpuuv/comment/oxdktgv/

>Culture is formed continuously by the reciprocal interactions between members of a race, which in turn are formed by its cultural landscape.

>The Golden Rule and Equality Under Law proliferating throughout America were a direct result of white, british values being transferred to the colonies by the original Christian British colonists. As demographics changed, culture changed, because the migrants that arrived to the American colonies brought their own distinct cultures with them.

>Changing the ethnic makeup of America will invariably change the culture. Which is why large portions of the states along the Southern border have advertisements in Spanish now.

>As time progresses, you will see precepts like Egalitarianism, Rule Under Law etc start to slowly recede in favor of various ethnic demographics using identity politics as leverage to benefit 'their side'. Which is technically already happening.

EDIT2:

I guess a more apt way to describe my complaint:

We're importing too many cultures to the extent where the good values we cherish and want to preserve are being oversaturated by the cultures of too dissimilar immigrants.

If we had more "western values" immigrants I wouldn't have as much of a compliant because largely those values align with ours. But when we get a huge flux of immigration that doesn't share our values and is only here as an economic migrant: that's fine for a few thousand maybe even a few million people over a decade. But when it's over 3 million people a year, it's enough to overwhelm the "dish" and contribute to cultural rot rather than enrichment.

Therefore we should pause or at least slow down non-western culture immigrants.

This isn't my idea btw, Denmark did exactly this. As did Poland. Americans can immigrate to Denmark or Poland, but if you're from a culture not aligned with their values or cultural expectations, then they shut the door. We should be doing the same. Does that make me xenophobic? Sure, probably. But it's selectively so based on the character of the dominant culture.

https://youtu.be/xleuUwGei84

Apparently Microsoft laid off about 5000 people recently. Yet it still got approved for 2,273 H-1Bs.

This kind of crap has to end. If a tech company lays off a single US citizen they should be required to hire them back or explain why their termination was performance related before being able to hire a single H1B that year. Every single US citizen they lay off should be entitled to that, individually 1 by 1. With 5000 layoffs that would take them forever.

When a city aggressively raises its minimum wage, do low-wage workers get stuck at that artificial floor, or does the free market still drive wages up to compete for labor?

To answer this, I looked at 20 years of BLS wage data for the Seattle Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and created this chart. This tracks the percentage of workers in the top 10 industries who earn meaningfully above the local minimum wage, which I defined as making at least 10% more than the mandated floor.

Seattle Minimum Wage over the Years:

• 2006: $7.63 (Washington State Minimum Wage)

• 2011: $8.67 (Washington State Minimum Wage)

• 2016: $13.00 (Seattle Ordinance phase-in for large employers)

• 2021: $16.69 (Seattle Ordinance for large employers)

• 2026: $21.30 (Seattle Ordinance unified rate for all employers)

##Interpreting the data:

1. The 2016 "Wage Compression" In 2015/2016, Seattle began rolling out its aggressive minimum wage ordinance. Look vertically at the 2016 column in the bottom half of the chart (Retail, Hospitality, Transportation). You can see a massive drop in the number of workers earning meaningfully above the local minimum wage. The new minimum wage leapfrogged the market rate, instantly "compressing" huge swaths of entry-level workers into the minimum-wage floor. At that moment, market competition was basically replaced by the local minimum wage.

2. The Market Bounces Back (The 2026 Correction) So, are entry-level workers still stuck at the floor today? Overall, no.

If you track Retail and Transportation horizontally to 2026, the colors get darker again. Despite the Seattle minimum wage currently sitting at $21.30/hr, the market has absorbed the shock.

To attract workers, employers in these sectors are now having to offer wages above that high baseline. The free market is driving wages, pushing 70-75% of those workers back over the +10% premium threshold.

3. The "Two Seattles" The chart clearly splits the economy in half:

• The Decoupled Top: Sectors like Information (Tech) and Financial Activities have sat at 95-99% for 20 years. Their base pay is driven by national competition for highly skilled labor, making local minimum wage laws completely irrelevant to their wage structures.

• The Floor-Tethered Bottom: Leisure & Hospitality is the one glaring exception to the market recovery. Even in 2026, less than half of this sector clears the 10% premium. For restaurant and hotel workers, the city's minimum wage is still the absolute dictator of their paycheck.

TL;DR: Aggressive minimum wage hikes temporarily turn entry-level market wages into government-mandated flat rates. But over a 5-to-10-year horizon, the labor market recalibrates, and employers are forced to pay premiums above that high floor to stay competitive, with the notable exception of the hospitality industry.