CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
title
AN ORDINANCE relating to human services contracts that include appropriated money expressly reserved for the purpose of human services provider pay; requiring that such appropriated money be used only for wage increases for human services workers that are in addition to inflationary adjustments; establishing contracting and reporting requirements regarding use of such appropriated money; and adding a new Chapter 20.61 and Section 20.61.010 to the Seattle Municipal Code.
body
WHEREAS, in 2019, the City enacted Ordinance 125865 establishing Seattle Municipal Code Section 3.20.060 to require annual inflationary adjustments for Human Services Department (HSD)-administered human services contracts to reflect actual operating costs (including wages), unless explicitly prohibited by or otherwise incompatible with requirements of the funding source, because the City found that human services agencies have challenges maintaining services due to vacancies, turnover rates, low wages, and increasing costs; and
WHEREAS, the University of Washington published the Wage Equity Study in February 2023; and
WHEREAS, the Wage Equity Study found that holding constant worker characteristics such as education level or age, median annual pay for human services workers in the non-profit sector is 37 percent lower than in non-care industries; and closing a 37 percent wage equity gap would require a 59 percent increase in wages; and
WHEREAS, the Wage Equity Study found that workers who leave the human services industry for a job in a different industry see a net pay increase of seven percent a year later (relative to workers who stay in human services) after accounting for observable worker and employer characteristics; and
WHEREAS, the Wage Equity Study included a job evaluation that demonstrated that the gaps revealed in the market analysis between human services workers and workers in other industries ...
Click here for full text