RENTON, Wash. — The Renton City Council determined that the decision to raise the minimum wage in Renton will be left in the hands of the voters.
The city council took up raising the wage to $19/hour in Monday night’s meeting. It would be nearly a $3.25 jump.
The council rejected an ordinance to pass it outright but did vote to put it up for a special election.
That election will happen in February.
How Renton got here:
The city currently mandates employers pay at least the statewide minimum of $15.74 an hour to workers.
But a long signature drive for an initiative to increase that to $19 an hour recently was certified by King County Elections.
Guillermo Zazueta, Chair of Raise the Wage Renton PAC led the campaign.
“We launched our campaign in January of this year, and just recently qualified for the Feb. 2024 Special Election.”
The PAC had originally hoped to qualify for this year’s November general election, but because a significant number of signatures were rejected, it did not make it onto the ballot.
Raise the Wage re-submitted the signatures in August.
On Monday, the initiative was certified with about 500 signatures over the required amount of 8,913.
The Renton City Council had 20 days to either submit the proposed ordinance as a ballot measure for the February election, or, pass the ordinance outright with four votes or higher.
The wage increase is a tiered system.
“If you have a business with 15 employees or less, you are completely exempt from this ordinance,” Zazueta said. “We wrote that specifically to speak to small and micro-businesses in the region, to let them know we are taking their consideration.”
For businesses between 15 and 500 employees, the new wage will be implemented in 2026, with an average of about a dollar-an-hour raise each year until the $19 rate is met.
Zazueta says they really designed the initiative for the minimum wage workers at the largest companies.
“The majority of minimum wage workers in Renton work for large chains. They are fast-food workers, department store workers, grocery store workers, and largely non-union positions. And, most are elderly and youth, and do need this raise.”
Zazueta calls the higher wage the “release valve” lower-income workers need to earn a few extra dollars to get by.
You can find the link at Rase The Wage Renton.