Organizers behind Burien’s minimum wage ballot initiative say the city has been using public funds to mislead residents and drum up opposition to the measure, which will come before voters in a February special election.
If approved, Measure 1 would replace the City Council-approved minimum compensation ordinance that took effect this month. The measure would raise the minimum wage for workers at large employers to $21.10 an hour, matching Tukwila’s rate and ending exemptions in the city’s ordinance that advocates say have resulted in few people seeing a pay increase.
Supporters of the ballot initiative say the city’s actions in recent months — writing ballot descriptors that organizers called biased and sending out printed mailers and buying digital ads about the city ordinance that supporters say lack clarity — are all aimed at confusing voters and persuading them that its existing law is sufficient.
In a statement, city spokesperson Devin Chicras said “All messaging and outreach efforts have been accurate and conducted in accordance with the law.” Chicras noted that printed mailers and digital ads “are two key tools the City uses frequently to inform the community about new laws that may impact them.”
Raise the Wage Burien campaign coordinator Katie Wilson said the city’s role in a citizen initiative is supposed to be “a procedural one and a neutral one.”
“It just seems very clear that Burien’s mayor, city manager and city attorney are very opposed to our initiative and have been acting to undermine it in ways that we think is not appropriate for city officials.”
Under the current ordinance, which the council approved in March and updated in October, starting Jan. 1 large businesses now pay workers $4.50 over the state’s minimum wage, or $21.16 an hour.
Notably, the city’s ordinance allows employers to use tips and benefits to make up the $4.50-an-hour difference. The state’s minimum wage law does not allow businesses to use tips or benefits as part of their pay, and no other local municipalities with higher wage floors allow such a credit as of Jan. 1.
An analysis by the Economic Opportunity Institute this month estimated about 47% of people who work in Burien would not see that $21.16 hourly rate because they are employed either at small businesses (which are exempt from the city’s ordinance) or at businesses with 21 to 499 full-time equivalents, which must pay $20.16 an hour.
The city of Burien does not have its own estimate for how many workers are impacted by the ordinance, Chicras said.
Business leaders have largely supported the City Council-approved ordinance, saying it strikes the right balance of mitigating impacts to employers while acknowledging the need for a wage increase.
Restaurants can use tips waiters earn to cover the compensation increase. Likewise, grocery stores can consider health insurance expenses for an employee as making up the difference. Local franchise owners with fewer than 500 full-time equivalent workers would not classify as a large business even if they’re part of a multinational network, in contrast to standards set by several other minimum wage laws in the region.
Those “carve-outs” mean few workers are actually seeing a difference in pay this year beyond the state’s 38-cent minimum wage bump from 2024, said Wilson, who is also general secretary of the Transit Riders Union.
“I can’t think of a single employer in Burien where I’m 100% confident that their workers would have to be paid that ($21.16 rate) because there are so many exceptions and loopholes,” Wilson said.
Burien City Council initially approved a minimum compensation ordinance in March, which would have required large and midsize employers to pay $3 and $2 more than the state’s minimum wage, respectively, starting Jan. 1. The new law came shortly after Renton voters approved a $19 minimum wage, part of a wave of localities in the region seeing higher wage floors to address the rising cost of living.
The Measure 1 initiative qualified for the ballot in September. If passed, the minimum wage for large employers would be $21.10 an hour. The minimum wage for midsize employers (businesses with 16 to 500 workers) would be $18.10 an hour and increase a dollar each year until it matches the big-business rate. The small-business rate would be $17.10 an hour, and increase by 50 cents annually over a seven-year phase-in period. Tips and benefits could not be counted toward wage increases.
“We want to make sure anyone who’s working a full-time job can pay their rent,” Wilson said. “Initiative Measure 1 is a very simple, clear law. … Once that phase-in is complete, it’s very easy. Every worker in Burien must be paid at least the same minimum wage.”
Organizers said they’ve been receiving major pushback from the city over the initiative for months.
The city published a blog post on its website in August saying its ordinance was “threatened” by the initiative, and the City Council approved a ballot title and explanatory statement in November that organizers said was so prejudicial they threatened to sue. The city and organizers ultimately settled and the initiative’s description on the ballot was amended. Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon filed a complaint with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission alleging an initiative supporter violated state law by giving public comment in favor of the measure. The complaint was swiftly dismissed.
After the citizen-led initiative qualified in September, Burien City Council in October upped the compensation requirement in its ordinance to $4.50 and $3.50 over the state’s minimum wage for large and midsize employers, respectively — a move organizers believe was intentionally made to undermine their proposed measure.
More recently, in mid-November and again this month, the city sent mailers out across the city stating “Nation’s Highest Minimum Wage APPROVED October 28, 2024.” The city also purchased digital ads promoting its city ordinance in local media outlets. None of the messaging notes that tips and health care can be used to cover the increase above the state’s minimum wage.
Organizers say the city’s actions reflect attempts to persuade voters against the ballot initiative by suggesting Burien’s minimum compensation ordinance is not only adequate, but superior.
Colleen Hinton, a Burien resident and supporter of Measure 1, filed a complaint against the city in December alleging the city violated state laws with its mailers and ads. Hinton said a representative at the state Public Disclosure Commission told her upon investigating the complaint that it’s unlikely the city broke the law. The commission has not yet released a formal decision on the complaint.
“I just think the city is being disingenuous,” Hinton said. “I really question it and their use of resources.”
It’s unclear how many mailers were distributed, though organizers believe most residents in Burien received one. Chicras said in a statement that how much the city spent on its messaging campaign is not immediately known.
Ballots will be sent to Burien voters at the end of January, and the special election will be held Feb. 11.