National media are beginning to buzz about efforts in Seattle to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, an issue that wasn't on the political radar six months ago, but has quickly become a major point of debate in Seattle's mayoral and city council races. How did it happen? Smart, effective activism.

The rolling, nationwide string of one-day fast food strikes—a grassroots campaign backed by the organizational and financial resources of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)—has been hugely successful in pushing the issue of living wages toward the top of the political debate, while branding that $15 an hour figure as a recognizable target. Locally, the City of Sea-Tac's "Good Jobs Initiative" to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for long-suffering SeaTac Airport workers (again, a campaign backed by SEIU) both reinforced that message within the Seattle metro area, while laying the groundwork for using local ordinance to raise working standards here in Seattle proper. At the same time, Kshama Sawant has made a $15 an hour minimum wage the centerpiece of her surprisingly strong city council run, demonstrating that the issue has resonance with voters.

Will all this activism result in a $15 an hour minimum wage anytime soon in Seattle? Probably not. But I'd be surprised if it doesn't result in a serious effort to raise our local minimum wage above Washington State's already highest-in-the-nation $9.17 an hour, if only by an additional two or three bucks. That may not seem like much, unless you're the one earning minimum wage when a 30 percent pay increase goes into effect. And dollars to donuts if we manage to raise the minimum wage here in Seattle, cities around the nation—many of them currently pegged to the pathetic federal $7.25 minimum wage—will attempt to follow our lead, potentially improving the lives of millions of low-wage workers.

Politics is hard, especially when you represent the disempowered. But if you think all that marching and striking and civil disobedience has no impact, you don't know anything about politics.