NEWS GLEAMS | $20.29 Minimum Wage Passes in Unincorporated King County; Plant Hardiness Zones Change to Address Climate

A roundup of news and announcements we don't want to get lost in the fast-churning news cycle!

by Vee Hua 華婷婷

King County Passes $20.29 Minimum Wage for Unincorporated Areas

On Tuesday, May 14, the King County Council passed a mandatory minimum wage for unincorporated areas of King County, including White Center, Vashon Island, and Skyway. With the passage of the law, unincorporated King County will join nearby cities, such as Seattle, Renton, SeaTac, and Tukwila, in establishing a mandatory minimum wage.

Wages will increase starting Jan. 1, 2025, but their rollout will be tiered to help small businesses adapt to the change. Businesses with 15 employees or fewer will have a starting minimum wage of $17.29; between 15 and 500 employees will have a minimum wage of $18.29; and those with over 500 employees will have a minimum wage of $20.29. An annual inflation will be included starting in 2026, and eventually, the minimum wage gap will close among all businesses so all will pay the same amount by 2030.

By some calculations, the cost of living in the Seattle area is 50% higher than in the rest of the country, with housing alone landing at 111% higher than average. A mandatory minimum wage of $20.29 is a step toward helping residents earn a "liveable wage," which, according to MIT's Living Wage Calculator, ought to be around $28.70 for a single adult with no children living in the region. Studies have also shown that increasing the minimum wage can help support local economies, as employees who earn additional funds tend to spend them in their local communities.

As the bill's prime sponsor, Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, said during the Tuesday King County Council meeting, "Even though [workers are] suiting up and clocking in for work every day, they continue to struggle to afford their rent, to pay for gas, to support their children."

The bill passed with a 7—2 vote and was also co-sponsored by Committee Chair Rob Dembowski. Voting against it were Councilmembers Reagan Dunn and Pete von Reichbauer, with Dunn proposing two amendments, including one that would take a worker's total compensation into account, including any health benefits, tips, and bonuses they receive. The other would have ensured that the minimum wage only applied to urban areas and not rural ones. His amendments did not pass.

Amendments that passed unanimously included one by Councilmember Sarah Perry that extends a deadline for the county to create a report on how it can support farmers in unincorporated King County, as well as one from Councilmember Claudia Balducci that requires an impact report to be delivered on the wage increase, to be delivered in 2028.

King County Executive Dow Constantine is now expected to sign the bill into law. The minimum wage increase would put unincorporated King County $4 above Washington State's minimum wage of $16.28 an hour and well above the nationwide minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

King County Auditor Finds Significant Financial Operations Problems in County Recorder's Office

Following an audit of the King County Recorder Office (KCRO), the King County Auditor has released a report that details significant issues with financial operations conducted by KCRO over the past six years. The report, which reviews work from 2018 to 2023, cites a lack of adequate financial oversight within the KCRO and a lack of sufficient steps to ensure its financial data is accurate and complete. The result has been the misallocation of millions in prepaid funds, overbilling, and lost revenue during that period.

"[We] found that errors in prepaid account deposits had misallocated nearly $7 million to the wrong customers," the Auditor's Office wrote in a press release. "Auditors also found invoices with duplicate and missing charges, including overbilling customers to the tune of $1 million and the omission of $17,000 in legitimate charges."

The Auditor's Office and KCRO have a long, connected history. From 1854 to 1969, the Auditor's Office maintained oversight of all documents that belonged in the public record. Those functions were taken over by the KCRO in 1969, which maintains online records and in-person records related to public records, including but not limited to: real estate deeds, mortgages, plats, surveys, and marriage licenses. In 2023, it recorded nearly 300,000 documents.

The Auditor's Office, meanwhile, maintains the power to conduct independent audits that are intended to improve performance, accountability, and transparency in King County government functions.

The report highlights 17 recommendations for how KCRO can improve its processes, roles, and internal structures to increase financial oversight and create contingency plans. The Auditor concludes that a lack of improvements would put them at "greater risk for uncollected revenue, non-compliance, and potential fraud."

The full report can be read on the King County Auditor's website.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Changes Plant Hardiness Zones for the First Time Since 2012

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has long used a system of color-coded Plant Hardiness Zones that offer guidelines to help farmers, agriculturalists, and gardeners understand which crops and plants they should plant and which times of year they should plant them. In 2023, for the first time since 2012, the USDA updated these zones to account for changes in the climate and weather.

The Seattle area has been classified as Zone 8b since 2012. Those zones were based on averages from 1976 and 2005, which put the region's winter low temperatures between 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The USDA's recent reclassification looks at data from 1991 to 2020, which averaged winter low temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees — or an average of 4.4 degrees warmer than the previous period. With these shifts in mind, the USDA reclassified Seattle as Zone 9a.

Plant Hardiness Zones help growers determine which perennials — or plants that come back year after year — can survive the winters. However, hardiness maps are based on average winter lows, but do not speak to extreme low temperatures that may lie outside of the average and fall far beneath 20 to 25 degrees in the Seattle area. They also do not include extended cold periods or offer information about whether plants can survive summer temperatures or droughts.

Plant Hardiness Zones are also based on microclimates. While the Seattle area falls under Zone 9a, areas to the south in Federal Way, east to Issaquah, west to some of the islands, and north to Everett remain in the 8b zone, with exceptions in select pockets.

View an interactive national map of Plant Hardiness Zones via NPR or zoom in on the Seattle area map. A separate map is also available on the USDA website.

Our content is funded in part by advertisements. To inquire about advertising with the Emerald, check out our media kit and fill out our application for more info.

📸 Featured Image: Photo courtesy of the Office of Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, 2023.

The South Seattle Emerald website contains information and content supplied by third parties and community members. Information contained herein regarding any specific person, commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the South Seattle Emerald, its directors, editors, or staff members.