07/01/2024
In these past few days of just plain bad news, from the debate to the French election to the latest Supreme Court decisions, it is important to realize that progressive systemic policy advances don’t happen from the top down, but from the bottom up. Here in the Seattle area we are making progressive history, challenging market rate housing, and increasing the minimum wage, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. And we are progressing!
The Transit Riders Union https://transitriders.org/ spearheaded a minimum wage initiative in Tukwila in 2022, and just yesterday the minimum wage for mid-sized employers increased to $19.29. In Renton the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America https://seattledsa.org/ waged a successful initiative campaign, resulting in the minimum wage for large employers to increase to $20.29 for large employers, as of July 1st. These advances enabled the King County Council to increase the minimum wage in unincorporated areas of the county to increase to $20.29, beginning in 2025. In Burien, Raise the Wage Burien https://www.raisethewageburien.org/ is gathering signatures for an increase to $20.29 as well.
In Seattle, we are taking on market rate housing and the excess compensation of the professional elite with Initiative 137 https://www.letsbuildsocialhousing.org/ which will put in place a 5% tax on employers for compensation to individual employees in excess of $1 million. That will raise about $60 million a year, dedicated to developing affordable social housing for families with incomes up to 120% of Seattle’s median income (that’s about $155,000 for a four person family). We have gathered 38,000 signatures, so now it is headed for the ballot.
With the national political scene going awry, these local initiatives and efforts take on even greater importance. We can indeed build our commonwealth, starting in our own backyard! Let’s persist and prevail.
Let’s build social housing! Pass a social housing payroll tax Sign up for our newsletter Sign up to volunteer Seattle voters have mandated social housing On February 14, 2023, Seattle voted to create a social housing developer through I-135 by a 14% margin. Now we’re looking to fund the social h...
