(The Center Square) – The city of Burien has filed a lawsuit intended to halt the adoption of a voter-passed minimum wage increase in the city, but leaders of the measure say the lawsuit has no merit.
Initiative 1 in Burien was approved by 57.2% of voters in the Feb. 11 election. It would raise the minimum wage in the city to $21.10 for workers of large employers who have more than 500 employees.
For businesses with 16 to 500 employees, minimum wage would be set at $19.10 per hour and increase $1 per year until it matches the rate for large employers.
Small businesses would pay a minimum wage of $18.10 per hour and increase by 50 cents annually through seven years.
On Tuesday, the city filed a complaint in King County Superior Court seeking a declaratory judgment on Initiative 1. The suit alleges that the ballot measure did not repeal the city’s existing ordinance that the Burien City Council approved and took effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Under the council-approved ordinance, large businesses pay their employees at least $4.50 over the state’s minimum wage, or $21.16 an hour. However, employers are allowed to include tips and medical benefits as part of the additional minimum wage.
The voter-approved measure does not allow tips and benefits to be included in the minimum wage increase.
The city’s lawsuit alleges that Initiative 1 did not repeal the existing ordinance and failed to mention it as required by law.
According to the lawsuit, Raise the Minimum Wage Burien went to “exceptional lengths” to imply that the city had no minimum wage at all. As a result, voters were not informed of what local law they were voting to change.
“Thus, based on the complaint’s allegations, Burien voters unknowingly voted to have two competing or contradictory ordinances,” the city stated in a press release. “As a result, Burien has asked a court to determine which ordinance applies.”
The Raise the Wage Burien campaign led the charge on the voter-backed measure. Campaign Coordinator and Transit Riders Union General Secretary Katie Wilson and the union are named in the lawsuit.
Wilson told The Center Square in an email that the union does not believe the lawsuit has any merit and is “just another attempt to stop workers from getting a real raise.”
“As the individual named in the lawsuit, I’m trying to see it as a badge of honor to be sued by Burien’s current leadership – but I have to say, after everything we’ve been through to get this measure across the finish line, it’s feeling more like a bad case of the bedbugs,” Wilson said in an email. “They just won’t quit.”
Wilson alleges that Burien’s city manager, city attorney, and the majority of the city council has gone to great lengths to undermine Initiative 1 from the beginning.
The initiative is set to take full effect at the end of March.
