Kirkland Weighs its Minimum Wage, Chamber Weighs In

At its November 4 meeting, the Kirkland City Council will decide how to evaluate a local minimum wage. If you live in Kirkland or run a business there, here is what to know!

1. Council is choosing how to study the question, not voting on a wage yet. City staff have given Council four options for next steps, which can be combined. Read the staff memo here.
2. The city hasn't counted who would be affected. No one yet knows how many Kirkland workers earn at or near the minimum wage, or how many employers would feel the change.
3. Kirkland would stand alone among its neighbors. In January, Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond, Bothell, Kenmore, Woodinville, Issaquah, Newcastle, and Mercer Island will all pay the state minimum of $17.73 an hour, whereas unincorporated King County's rate will be $21.57. A Kirkland rate at that level would be $3.84 an hour higher than its neighbors.

The Greater Kirkland Chamber has a specific request: It asks Council to pair the data work in Option 4, with the outreach in Option 2. Meaning, they want staff and Council to:

• Count the Kirkland workers and employers affected, through a consultant whose results every side can accept, with results back by the end of March.
• Hold separate listening sessions for owners and for workers, led by an independent facilitator, so everyone can speak freely.
• THEN, make the wage decision only after the count is in.

"Bellevue, Redmond, and Bothell all pay the state minimum wage,” Greater Kirkland Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kathryn Straub, said to the Puget Sound Business Journal. “Before Kirkland becomes the only city in the group where the same job cost more, the council should know how many of our workers and businesses would bear the costs."

Learn more and attend the November 4 meeting using this link.