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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBatch 0011. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 410 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be st&tfif the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. AUG 31 2023 RECEIVED env Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. MT Y CLERK'S OFFICE Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date s2iOra Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 N\"I-L- i�A-�1 �09-2 1 Lt,.7ko YLME Renton Renton �3 ILWi<'e �6j 6- Renton C�Q/Zg, _5eF W, 91(Qrbn-� O,K�—TAG(/ God _LJV�Cy A` Q- pvr Renton c)Yv rt W// �✓ -� �Lv�P cfl Aixe /V� Renton Z3 Renton flJG-te—rS �j �J �� �QS10 ��>,° l� Renton PMAQC_I�2 C(AA v\ -�(a\ SE bt"" S. Renton _-:�04'Z7, 2A—'6 6/2,V2-3 Renton Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section I. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide army of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July I, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar yeaz, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this detenninatioq all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment,joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer i£they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one o£those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; c. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to timemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1, Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49,46.070, as well as such information m the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: I. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1. 2. G 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date svOt�1 Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 E i�h 22ao S£ Pt '0' Renton Renton Lo(� 5OG` bjy-IJ.co^, 6&(/23 a3 re p 16314 Izb1" Renton 26 Rk7 7 (MovtceLro t cl oQA, c,ow, G /Zi z Olnl/lm '501 11-AP115 a✓� Renton p/ �S, 7, G �� 1�1I�,COv� 2/ Z 13 Renton "„-" V � l�✓1 � t/ � I `��d J�'Yi/S q, a S Renton Renton ZA-r-/e6-1 3 CA Le kNI ds n� r J Renton j j �5 `o20D17�i6� `'IG'�L IPr1Ga 145-4q ST r,P�Htn Renton b/�1 ��2 7 LJfrky Wc In 5L-16L ►24 .SwwSe_ Renton _Z-04- Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child cue, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 20252 other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information a; the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. I£ an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements, This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Sam*110&x Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 st` / Renton 2. �lY/GYl t Renton Renton -d 3 4.A Z, Renton 5. U h �cs G a� ocw Q V L 211 r Renton re7v 6. l�'�v� & "'��"✓ �IDila 5D31� 1, �> Pl, C� _e:A Renton 71 7. VI1 we� ' ,O&e�k se Zi2ok,-. Renton McC,�L� dL[J�U-1[v�✓`C"�' 17r{l-fo++,°r 11"-i��4�_ Renton ZcG-;68`f-1lo,5 e 9. Itamt cwl�. qwomkk. S Coa-AiGe-E W00(1W0r4h 1`7)41 anesQriyeSC— Renton zol�-y8N-403d � 27-wz3 J ✓1 %� u t4'1d Sr7 s6, U f4 P1 Renton ObZ 277 63 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 2V 9"" „ �CT �� AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuing that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following yew using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee we in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: I. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the homily minimum wage established under Section 3. Section S. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar yew in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar yen, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar yen will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous yew. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are trader joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: . a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; c. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of my right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per arum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees we similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees we employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. . _... Name0 Canva s r: f C_... ._~ « .....%. s e (✓� A�f -t7��� Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: p e 60-. , G Lr.-, G L'r.-,. Z�G 3z v `l 40 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1. INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org L4 AloA-6`�)6=fi -(ZSot) (%F3L Renton 417-15-Zl,- Date 4/10/2023 L 2. � � CJ9�� 169S0 I'L Renton G�Zo Z 3• �.E/I f%�✓ L� / 7�� �s$z jGY✓�9 V /V_Renton f� a 4. 6 � I I ' I " l'" 670 � �l Renton Renton �`" � a_Z_ 5. Sara A&nl} �" �',7 6. .� "'CifPW'� /� (�Q� 70 Renton lrX l5 fK6UbLeCF9(f�l / �_ 3 7 �1 , _I I^. V 1%/ U�l►IA�V� i�j 1� 30 Si' Renton ail-� 8. �/l ^ s 1 C� lC: I + s Renton 9. �r `/(� � � f` 0 ���•5 i 7Gia —� ,Y�/L'q\i3 Renton �i oZ -7 a 3 10. AA � �IL✓a f I �iqnAIa kin-kIUD IZl2I1' 1 l0 Pl of Renton (n 12 7 -2; Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide anay of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent, 4. When working Families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5, An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5, Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional meant of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8, The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "How worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rutemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers" See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: 1 We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date S`U0 Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 r'Aojo(2� L117 f V'L' (AWLS AO . 55( A`, H A'I. Lf 8 Renton 5& cl83i `7767 Kd IV �1i1 S �%{^ �,i5 C h�cuC,�v Renton 61 24 �-Cfz' � / sY y s i3/ �. / k'L✓ J O/✓ loa / �i/�%�v�K /�1� Renton Renton x 4z-S- - 7s7 - jgaCIn, I l K,✓I0r%r 1003 nl 1f+ 6F Af*T- 105 Renton o�. �_7� 7(aIN ✓ 11, I C� I., u St. 4PjL 166 P-r r 4 IIfr qrf� L:�- Renton Z06� 9S Z790 Renton Renton Renton Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center,. as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous yew. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they forth an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiving additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. T The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46,010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1. 2. 3. 9 5. 0 91 10. INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date S `71a&T Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 2a� 'aa ih a v-e c:--. Renton z-Co l(f0_> �iY?c5l4e- 00 e6_1 " `r' cp -z -7- d�e'> 13& Jv), • Renton 2�93 Z, / l9 1 d b 4,' rl V Renton J l� Renton (0 /1 SqEd L9 Renton 1 71z3 1ZO�'1l, &Z Renton G��S %5% 233� PS aCdo �t c�C'�S I C � COO -�'' p IU @gam ACAV'vn Renton ZS (olct- cf3ro Gc.( nac�.'l. co bz Renton '!s <� Renton/l/_ — l SOV1 �—`• �12i�/1 � i Q/`iE 1�3 `^ �� Renton ZOU 6(Hyan• rn 1a .0'Im-al �P i23 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 23 -):5 AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section.3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, tensed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section S. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and it. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4, No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. S. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as�follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the graeftor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The MinimumWage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: p cccneT 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Sa00&?1aeM Printed Name 1234 Anywhere S . Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1. ,ZAIZ W TL Renton 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7 F! a '( )O,J h - j t/Lt F[4— bViavli�c� �-var� _C� Date 4/10/2023 1;qt� S�. b "I A-dt Renton Renton I%II �Pn�ew:c� Cam( S� Renton men 3��( -%�43 'i1���;A4,-/� °�"re��.conr �j' �'�> Renton Renton l ZU C��-f�3fo-721�L MA bv�atnt„d+jd r) lvna; ( bl �-7 /7yr1^ 1 Renton a.° Cl P oo y, Z 7 Z< Renton C%1 & "dq a 11V 3 1 6'tYW Renton 6ml— �� 53 U o 2_�7- �I^ - li M1U Sfi ZoGV4N1 V�c� Renton � l/I �,�� G��i(✓� iip Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with newly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 horns each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. L Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January I thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar yew will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; g P P b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree.of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding order or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terns and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that we unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clew and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter we cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, and or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees we employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rates and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter, The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: ivasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 1 it Renton j q& CL ril ni I ( 1 (� �Z> l ' � Renton v 1� , 6 (0 2. -7�y� 3. ✓ 1 V� ��C \ 4 7 Renton25 4. � � Renton 2t�Cv3dl abcoej ���'� C��, ��� 11 l 74 )a3r� Arc 5 E Renton s. - - 1 ��U 6. ct, Q'7!� AL,� Ave_, �jE F207 Renton 7.' �n {cr I A,(r�i(e s � ��J'mat �I/ l� G2l j\� ��- V� Renton ZU�2G1� O IL( Gz-r^cGt Renton 9. Y �'My�'��lCW� ZCIb 6'� �. Renton53���C� io 111 Oo Su 1'i�'rReyjl(y Renton 2k Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all coveredemployers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar yew will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but we not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but no not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clew and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible Purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employedby the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that we unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participatejointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer, "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling,or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer, "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email s`7/0(" Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org MaL JV ✓� ��h t���iOl/� � 1(6, oc -4-T H St' 1�11(o (•tl✓ 111�- 5t I ( hvQ yr o-" G lv�e rL -- Renton Renton Renton Date 4/10/2023 Y WN 6 - g - 23 Renton des A&,j q �"ia�\� \C�( � �O U5 l� qL tCvvv, c✓.a Renton G- 0 �� T °a Renton 6 fF fz.3 °° SEA'j 0 c-�_1�0-c �DS 6eAYIAIV\ AU(-- N E Renton / /n I ("�t �C11� P [Z--M 1�� ��Z (i�l/✓ �L Renton We 6�/ Co 6,k �2J2 �WCICO �� %Q, Renton l 1�(23 List C\ _k 6` a 1�w PL t\i 4� Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with newly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46,160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, me itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terns and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Areor were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees we employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a giftor gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt tales and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject `concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 RM 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: ® 0cccne� 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date .S4"0&'U6tmc Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 `': iz� an�i �� %�Vc Renton tIZ . 17 r /�.c3�5 ,�I r �( r�. �I.3i3 m�aGilbi�¢�r.,�;I 2. te, �td9�j UVI G( I'_��J'� I� ` Renton �� l �-y� l r ' (j o . ( o w. �J lei is r 3.-4-tv Renton 4. �l> C'�CY\a Ie�} Ic� W� I�S 1 tv� ��f Renton 21:�D �� I-1 3�9 S�(Yl�il�Y7d�VY1C�2a)I S Il� 12� Renton 5. Renton ( 6. 6Z'0 23 7 8. ls4 Lo 5;yc// I � W'�t Renton SRenton 6n jdG� Av—c 3 E MZ3 Renton Renton 6--� `'l ��� ✓V-" Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts mound the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 horns each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than are. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current you. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per antrum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Cod., chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer, "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensue compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 RM 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature .S"O& tiorm Printed Name Printed Name 0 Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. C City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton Renton 4C /6�7 Renton Email Date maria@something.org 4/10/2023 W a� Jar) lsaOa- n �� CGS S oZ� Ave s�,�-�� Renton Renton Renton FU5 CQ //'� /z. V��` II -'' ca / A L6Yt �1�1 �1��°� �aAl�9�1� Renton Ta M-C�� V So r` 91-I d N 6� _++Q_ V � Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuing that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January I thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional meant of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per mount or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class. of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 1 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature s vorm Printed Name Printed Name N o_ Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. '-17to N✓` -2+i` 21�2u nq� 3014 City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton Renton Renton Renton 3'6.6 C-j?oo ndsAoP_ S& Renton 5h .LLB ''/ /, S' Renton 1204 N, ( °�'`M PL Renton Renton 6 {' ek-', ✓ a C� /� 1 C1� ��L�1 T� �—f �n 1�—j Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 'I�olz3 �/ 4 <-OAA2Z Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Z3 AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer o£jobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working Families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health one, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation, For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participmejointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer, "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash, 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: ® GCC/IBT 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name S `1/orm Printed Name 1 3. 5. 6. 7 Or 8. �] 10. Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 Uf�t�'©wl +VO- iE Renton S7/( Renton Renton A�� Renton Hc° <.' -�� (�l mCY` '� J✓off �eYl(� LC L _^'� I' 1�1 'e- � d—Bfd hli 6o ( Renton Renton L-ri< refs LIj 5� %i� %'`1�� y C7ol Renton f�l1 z4SQ_� M�k� t000y�- jS-S� AT1 L q(Am -Trl�5x� Ilyo-? 69 4 `Pl 5 Renton � q� )-�-_7 Renton �71-Y-1C, men 6/o/a3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1, Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child one, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year, In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter, 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter, 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees we similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that me unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: I. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. rorName Of Canvasses Date Canvasser . Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email s2ia&4 Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1 0 3. ���-- /%et- 4. 5.� 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. _J U Renton Date 4/10/2023 Renton /v(�� Renton 4�2s Zed S^ 2? J / Renton All d'% Renton Zov S'C Renton 61,p %Z 3 t tD Renton �f / W10A 4k YL4ACY Coo- r' 5, ( '' Ohl r-'W &c I � F Renton / ct'(!�y C — I� k5'( , 6"k 6/l /2 !; - Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other bardships that prevent their ability to team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49,46,160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. I. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees timing all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. I. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per arum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Sa2e2/°tvz Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 1. el Keu S Renton 6 2. �\ `�`�/rv� �j nj�� S Renton(aj 3. 1 P)A>(L-L 9HA7-7"Wtq Renton te4 )AS 4. C� l�� GGS eL`c� qoO ,L Renton �rJ Q � 16 13C I Q 15� cue S� ���/D3 5 �� � �.�' ��1r � � vm Renton 6. �� 14VQ I � l ZZ�� ,�� vt� 4 A\f v Renton l l� I Z �— `���U� 7. 8. 9. 10. G CO, �Ue�-�— 1 3� 7 ►13� k Ave. + 't°T' / �0%1;7"3 IV'I 0/ 5 u. Renton Jt �� (/✓ Gv/� ( v1�2-_3 �� 16SC)shKo,, E-5/<(0l✓ %o^\.S lfc/Qs -)L 'SIA) Renton 6 161 � 3 5&L(0 4. W-47"40 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTao, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. I. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City, of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 4111 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true,�nd correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number city Phone Number Email Date Sav liee`[/otvc Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 Renton 2. ;7�r Renton L i v 3. ✓ Renton 4. �6m i55� %No1nU I (7)Vc441� /� S Renton / /�D��3 5. M(M/� IG�NDIQ/a ��1J ICU I C�a�` I�l S Renton 23 6. ���"1-dE �'�C� �OCo Renton 7. Yl Renton �1�i c¢'yl� 1 1 8. G 1-2 �Y �/ l �� Renton 9.,,�,�� �u �(wca l7 sL 2z� i 10. �� ti i C Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and has, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. S. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: I. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49,46,010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rates and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature S3aw�e `Uoten 1 2. 3. 5. Printed Name Printed Name G Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. ?w 3-,L- City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton q \j l' Lz' V 6 �Util)&CJ pL /VC Renton _gam je-4P Ra 1�\_ k N( I+t I 522S � c (�+k P� Renton Renton 4J5i7'luuaca P!_ ���� Renton 6 L !n 2'� 0'� �� �- �v Ai7r 74-A 0 ( Renton 7 Renton 8. ��� oe'( 9. V-4­'� t� a IM 10. �7 17�4U"L. d I NC Renton -2 MC Renton Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 � / 5/23 6-5'.3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 2,3 AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they straggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher, minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an etaployee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or Brands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 RM 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 40 Raising The Minimum Wage -in Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email S�m�ife%%ten Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 7 ""J* 0�C& I b Renton N 316 ZSHS "A- 4w, S Renton �q3 c� 00 u� I \ (�\ r\A 10 C) Renton a 2Z C) )-l- cL I li.(J N f_ mht�ien Renton ?� 0(-f c6�-71 Renton Ve+hsa�'�• �osn Date 4/10/2023 6- eo - 2,3 0 (,-z©.z3 04) 6 �ir,�23 6.(9 P �` \�� � 12/"1 !Off' ; �P c1 Renton 'AL) 7 9 0�? IJU /v. ` � _ Renton VZ'71? 1 1 o Q Renton Renton .FVSC1✓`ar7,���ii�w�yR�, 4 a',.- ��Z'�1� 10. Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child cue, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by die annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in tlris chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020, 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other fors of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the proposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees me employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. 7 7- Name Of Can, Date Can% Canvasser Email and Phone Nor Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email S`UO�L Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org . ,,. 1. 5uut kn bivt T Renton as aa7•-'4c, P t r I L Ga Renton I,�(:�SG �S�w,�� - Renton I�� 5�2'51- r Renton /" 5-h t 5/�-- ,s;,/ (-/Y At p Nr-'- " Renton �j 2-5-6cJ7 Cf Qc-3 1 3 %, / ". y AV F, Renton Renton Z06- /771-10 Renton AZz�;_— Renton 7 Date 4/10/2023 61���aoa S KI -13 Ell w z 3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work, 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fah labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the awhual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January I thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer, Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Pbase-In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a (p temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. •'/ 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will bec ca lculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer addmonal hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the bows of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work bows. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work bows when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work bows, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right wider this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable preswnption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. I. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. it. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that me unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records far the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and me not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: I. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the proposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010, An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46. 160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to bows). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: `-vasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: ® 1 cccnar 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date S400& 0 Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@soomething.00rg 4/10/2023 Renton CZ �/73 6/�U/2�7 2. (/J� �/stv/�iA} V/F 2A/� s/ Renton Z-10 0 g�172 /Li• �l�2da lwe Kati 3.Dad f L �l� Renton �a6�7�a -COP- f > 4. �f Gl % 1 I 1 �6'Z S `Z, S Renton L O - f - 6l S Cl 7 (. G6 5 Renton _ 6. �C .- J %l 11� 11 -� /; � i Yq, a., }�� i �� Renton � P T h o,� 7. /�fif �c—�, /T`e_`/ ,c.l S �T Renton ZU(� -7g36,d_�3 s. � t �—L /S • �+ / Renton -6 9. V� Renton 10. AAM(\` I 1 G(/ Renton �•U� V /l rC Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide away of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minhttum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous yew. For employers that did not have gross revenue timing the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. I. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter, 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clew and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the workshe and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: L A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify a; a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; 1 am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature 1 2.i 3 Printed Name Printed Name Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. S a,J P k'j, .-- ( SC- t63'' pL City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton I-(,Z P sg' Renton L.}zS.vVC'4-� Renton Renton !�/� ?S i O dfL Y« z S-tu.�- /z y23 r��� a 5- Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 0G oC((P�t"�3 b�A e)ZZ3 g'E / yy pl Renton ZY--tL;/ u f' 6* c/!y/,23 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent, 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but me not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter, the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for reftieling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are. employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: �nr We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email samACe°Umm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1. Coll(r('c IiCJQiI(o to(0 NC' IZ� J-� Renton 3bo ei0Tgg61 Date 4/10/2023 6/r7/Zo23 2. (Q Renton 3. ` V l`2 "., � L_ Renton �1 \0k 4. 1r � ��� �1GG!'l��i ��3�% ��15f/yVQ �.0 Renton /� �,�so� � e> l`�5 ►J s44 � W�5-2-7 Renton 01SI '%S�'551�'� ��(7/Z5 5. ll 6. )h f (Awt 551-7 D)F °ITN S`l- Renton 253 272,4 7. �1,� �-y/l..-v �ViHh an �/�?ti �li �/�l� S�; Renton $ 7 Renton f q'11cRenton I 10. I.�dJ� �� (d` D j I� �i� �V �� Renton �1��3u y l �b Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every Inge employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January I thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, a; well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1. INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Scuul>�e`Uat� Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org k" Renton i Date 4/10/2023 l -r c - 2.----�'� N 6 \ (� �cS sa C4e{tivs Z��S r�� 7 Z rcl Pl Renton 3. 2vco A79 a5rd- ?L- Renton �%LS-LlclS�OaZ43 a� zl&1Moll,cove A/Z Renton u h 124el' /��ac t Renton �1a S 8�d 307% 6. RA20� (�05{ Zlo02 01- 2312 �L Renton y2S ZZ/ Zc76.� LjoUJe-n inC� ic�ou�. �° 17—v/Z� 7. 6���� ,�oRE%%� P�T�I�s 42SU%.1/C�,c,�" Renton s(; . Renton 2.Db-& 23 9.2YW �?'V(uX\ ��lc.� o��Dg����-uS Renton lo. / 1P�/l (]f� �7c�� Ol�r Renton l�l 1<1 z� Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. ®cccnsT 933-m AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with newly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to Team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of. inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee we in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. I. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; c. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional mnount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees we similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010, An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and -whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number 5`U0r0' Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 2. 3. �- 9 5. T S"/ ra �S(� N � (:�+" ?( A�c,,�j D C 6 b i pvo� �l �c A)ci_ Renton Renton Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 �J--=? l I�SCIt\�� (�? 11 tft/�I I�� (��� Renton l 1 %a (� j �, 6. Y VI { I �vt ) _ v Renton 7. j,S 1✓ n -�, �r, —mot /o, ,��c !� F Renton 8. dl�� W�c�/V f�✓� {� ( U4L -!-C�3 L "� j 1 (Y��P 1 `T(.t%i/� .� �%l A- Renton 9. Renton 10. LJ ! ,� / ✓l L /] r . Wky Renton 'Z'0L° C1 �O 20 50 G —2T Z5 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they we more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: I. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per antrum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the workshe and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Printed Name Street and Number City 1234 Anywhere St. Renton Phone Number Email 206-555-1234 maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 I. � �`� 1- $°l. ���� 5( c1'BC�S `1 Renton 5 twe M.sh •CA"-\ Z 0.1n t Lrt 4�S(0 Renton (:t/`9 VA0,11 &( zr � �w�G n 00I � 00 IV�zh s4 A�-1 B g` Renton Z��.- 3 �Z4t N �dL(4. 5� _Z TM Renton �4VZ)ttA_ /`ICI 1-507NE Renton C1 8 090 ��f�y3 % F1c)r ni 561 Z- ) L4' �' Renton G 23 6 G;%c �%%%J�CSS1w 7 8. 9. Ti e�r"j Nc `�-e Renton 6612!/J-7"5 ii t&" 20 t$ A6(Agtn QL c-Z 341U Renton Renton teo9483(a) �d.- 10. /\ / G/ C h T. �o�l(� 3�/ © �.�� �( Ave l V Renton � Z2<- 5 323 a`r. �Q `n rn E�l�la iwc, �. c� C! 2 ! "j / �c, Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. ° --35 '— 933-M AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority df employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer.additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. I. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved'by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish theapplicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46,160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities shaze common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have FairAccess to Additional Hours. I. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiving through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the. City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: '7�6 776 l4�-� Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date S'?1m?4 Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 3. \� �Vgps* ` l &) lJKPr m ILL' 1K�YA a sLw,4co P L, t�5 5 Z'n N E 9111 P L SL3 Renton Renton Renton P1, Rentoni L I � h Renton O 3 � ��I � V L �� Renton V0_ 1 Lbro�0 l/�u, L PI AI r Renton 9-n I— (/(tiAa �z, ljG Renton I LW Ac p P L N I, 2 1Lwacp Renton Renton •10 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and servicecharges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section S. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email SQL Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1. 2. 3. 4. C) , V/" 0 ck'-, yv\.Q U V c- kAyeUIQ( iKI/tn 1v� YaV'\ 51 1 L' P i- N 2S7 UE1c> :S� �4X �'EKIG1,1a YL AjlE Renton Renton Renton Date 4/10/2023 (a/�/Zoz3 G!5 /goos3 6 /5 zd2_> Renton pv) C"� \�c V -1 '0 � C'kou - Cck� U + 02 3 S 2 Renton 61�_ 1 zo 25 Renton b(Yl ?02, c- G"1� IJ , Cif P P�5 Renton G/ Off 2 5 Renton ! �3 �x 4 l� 0 �j l � p � � C( � �— Renton o s a 3. Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. I. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonablejudgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment, 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participatejointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license trader this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: I. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject `concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date SaWAeePrinted Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 `0162 Renton J � 2 b&VyLO� oQil, 1. Renton o'ZOIo 35�( Od3Cr �� �JI 23 s.�C' LAs� G�\1`5�`c� ��aS7 se S'I Renton 4Zs-2-,J-W'7 r6�� .�ti0jt,�Ij77G)j�t «M S131)2, Renton Renton 5. l9 G �G �( Renton Y1 $fit P j Renton �PXz'5 8. o �� 1� Renton 9.. Renton Z 10. � navi„% �G�7ci� e� 70� /�o�y��i�� _111W I: Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to gjler additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. I. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January I thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation, 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, we itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and it. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. it. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. I£ an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) yews. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of havelfi g through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter, The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject `concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email sa"O&'71 ten Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1. /'4�,; 1 2. 3. 11 t" 0 a to V I0Lf*l G,rA S A% C 7 i 2 1 e A, Renton Renton �-- o S -7 1 7 p Renton rl� 8$3 �esn nton ra&, +" I � Date 4/10/2023 F! Ci. el IV Pi�SPn Zr36 Qwnt, k 44,, N Renton !!�%2S� 3 Renton �1\ 113(5� Renton IA/ 1532S SF ISSN' Renton Renton o-I 0-- ?ID�Swstkd � �jn Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction, The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage, Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees we similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or tbeirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and we not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 EM 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 40 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: ® cccner 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date S400&'?/0tfc Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 1. � � (i�P1 30�05C,���IQcP�s�r Renton �.�5,j-b 2. `� AA �1 eupi1r�L KR2l �• STgAnt �a�t C wl �V>; N. Renton b�yy JZ3 3. �� _�I� ( �� /��� Renton %7 A!E 2 kjDC7L- Renton G 'ZS 23 s. J �l/� % �% X�l d✓�1 �IV�Z I �%Q as(�� Renton ���� k�retr�RCA"�t� 2� -Y)Uh(lS it Renton Z6/<3 7. ���GO� D d Renton s ! ( ram lWol i Renton 1 9. UO\I me �4 1 C/�-/ 3aq N1= ZDi'' Gj- Renton l3l?i�/Z3 L✓� i (S ri is S 10. �iUv�l /Vwi��.:t( (� Irk zf(7,3 Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide army of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part -fame employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current yew. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise: or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. I. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. I. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require, Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees we employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010, "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: I. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: ® .R.E. T, 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Seu«�ife?/otac Printed Name Printed Name r Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton % y'L 2. /P� L O�PG) 3L Renton 3. 0 4. 5. 7. 8. 9. 10. L Renton Renton Renton Ymr 6 6% t/ 1 q� / Sr ( T Renton I `t3)u S. S4 Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 J/ 6 /ziz3 �f7 6 /t—ez_21 v .L Q,,,,., p /� Tab �l 802 �0)11� Ve5C Renton G/ate Renton YIl� Z�, s. 3r� �� � Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuing that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter•, the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingnessto report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjuisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per antrum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in meant, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that we unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: I. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensue compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email S`°110rm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1. Iv 2. 3. 4.l�/ \ 5. 6. 7. S. vfL v 9. < 10. NJ C'dad 5 ; e,e ( q 11 6,co(h t 4v e-- �) 4 f Renton ( � In ' �d� I�wvti (bob I�� Y+U� SIs Renton t)& -4 4Z q��er U ua W i /WAR �j wl} 2 5 o s \A� L D Nt= PVim_ (Z G b lJ 15615 157,r � 5F_ a 7'D 5-y Renton ZED o26s- Renton Renton q29 - 5 / r Renton Date 4/10/2023 C (17 � 6 7 )3 G Renton C/yy - I� 7 � ylej 'ti1i6:L�f IVc �(S0`5 'N� JeV1%' iil✓� Renton <liG SJnySyrL�YI� Renton �10J1 kdQ_ 1"W Nt `N Renton ZoC�-3L!8 C:�tcs E (::,-I�-2-; C. 6/'z. Z3 � `)�_2�3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue wit I be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. I. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawfirl retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per auction or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; in Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job -titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46,070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. S. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: I. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The tern, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state -law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with thischapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rates and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 Pad 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1( RaisingThe Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 ('` �21L1�� �l�jLt� 3i15 ii\bsz6tZS.A,/e� 5 ggC,)S5 Renton °f �Renton (/`-✓ � (iD N 1�� 1t1v� S� ��rv�c ���. '�c� 116J. Renton �cr) on C ranee WU Renton N 101�e H��S°n iA 1 OA 'J �>;,G' 5-�7 Renton [2 V I l 11�i COLA T(�� 107 VitkC C. � Renton hC0LA,\A_ekI(@,o.A-V .awn �i7 �3 Renton Renton / Uv6Vi/iG Cl 61 % S dr ��`fitll�! �1�P�0ELl�i����J `��lalll��lfi'IViS�1�-S Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adapt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. I, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each how worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most. recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participatejointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) yens. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1, The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number Saml&`U� Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Qn/C I@I�ZjCf /✓'COL -?!l-/VeA7� City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton qz ?130 /6 Renton Renton Renton Renton • _ Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. IKIP 3 lk-4� LOW AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child cue, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, tensed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49,46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly mininwm wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have tire skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any odder person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per mount or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter, If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The terns, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 RM 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Car Date Can vesser Email and Phone Nr 40 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email SaHA&?/0te4 Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org i E OAN J C' vc N E _ i(e )ze V'�00'L I SE i L(,4 a �- �;k 25 - Renton Y2 5 2 _Lc? a240 4\� Renton 4Z5 15 Renton rL> Q (q S Z � cU l?c I V1 Renton 1904111 Me, Renton 5 Renton Renton Date 4/10/2023 VNu, (tUA ��(2 10. �6_1 q1Z4111 l � �5� I� � Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Eamers and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee we in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year, For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; c. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter•, the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a Use report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terns and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46,070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large. employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or erands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees we employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 Pad 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 1. 49 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date s2iae'n Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 t Renton / S/Z3 2. y Amy o w �Sb 35 ( �4 c -I � � A y � Renton �;r_QJ t Sj 5.0 (`Renton q16 3. IX _ 4hlr/ !/ 4. /V C✓ Renton t �J Renton 5. 6. —7 / N( , t rn 1 Renton' /. Renton � J-ICNF LLE 6�tOV L�l 56ii0 (a!'e Wsh�h7 131u� 6U nton �� Z 9. � � 1�2Y1 !1U 5ciQ Dss Renton ` as_ qNr9 10. d���" w ��1��� ��V'I U M151j, sc �501 S Renton A Wz IM6 �d�i��l li������ �Z. �L�UU�I ����i l�'� Ol Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Delius ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonablejudgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participmejointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: I. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 RM 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 40 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date sawA&-I/mm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 2. 3. 4. 5. S 6. 7. s. y 9. 10. k' /rUci 111(/2 k11 ,{ rP-� �S\\ N ;(� Ck cAcc 300 i 1 k�C ('�tI C� �17 v t4Lrfia d L-4VIS01n, Renton ton Renton Renton C-A .r, 00 �s --Ren 06 ton C /t g1z3 (�-/Ib %�3 &M/-Zs I Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. /5.,W AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers me well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTaq and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional horns of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. - Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and it. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTaq 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 RM 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date .Sao,*'I/Orm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 Renton 2. v -�-� fil�C �'✓y' t'J Y itdGy�C' ` ��'lljrf L� Renton !l' b �hJ Fi J � �_%GJ�%^ 3. ,Z %�'w( r�Vx/ p �Vrb%�dz� 3/ )! Renton 4. 't , ( a--3ssiD Jar 1 %v?k. (A 5 Renton y a,. 3-5 S-a < 5.ur 040U� � 0 � �` Renton �CiG `���'_ 3 i �� G' 6. 1��°� �L. ' r� !� �1 �`(11,1 ..� I �� �`.'►. �� 71V� Renton} 7. 7 �✓ 2S$ ✓� `l'Si"a� "( "1 �i I (��i^� Renton -" LD � 8. r� ��le���J /, / � / /J �� /� �/ "V �` Renton 61 � 0 9. 10. Renton / / T /,i 11�dkyr_ (L ltU /i)& Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. I. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonablejudgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. L Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief, d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained, 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are emulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 Pad 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name OF Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date �%' / Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 1. /��s �.h ��[ a.� Renton 2. 3. Y iG^in�t WL� �1�3DS6-�1 Renton 02 %35-7'6 Renton y�5'�7'Ps ✓ r •tint S Z-_� 4, rWk, /LI S 4-P6-& $✓f_ N 9- 60y\Pt^a VX—F\(oov.- V_, D-PVvA VNV e�-' - 0� bq S '54 �A 0 ( i`A L .cam X (jo Renton W� Renton �Ls-4-7 z - 5 Ze-/ Renton 1ertCVC Renton Renton �0 li_l0 — Renton Renton /g96.3 cam,-? / 0 1 3 �/lK/'25 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. // AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January I thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Pbase-In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. I. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter•, the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participmejointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject `concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash:,2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (201,5) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). ? Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton i I' ' INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: I i We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons , / -b., listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the lash preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date saoo& Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 1. al�1�o0V17� ��Z"M�V%t+ir2 h'j.�tl�/lrfl� G���ed�h Renton 2. oU K`1kfj 'G�, Oc A-� M S Renton lq�i YHA ICv�W�� I W•II: ,".�'; l+ t, Renton 1 �21Z_ aJAwoo��5wtihi1.Ge� 3. a —� Renton �1a13G� �j�Z-21 7� �� � � 4. l/ jZ�— �/IYtS �I.�✓ R\)1 Ova ���CUyuclnc✓0� rIi�/� C�IIXan Gkh/"/ 62)kh `l 71Z' r F Renton 5. �3 2 //r, Renton Zoe- %Z�"326Zi't4L�H o G,`l_ e ti 6�/3 r 7. /0/y.��"iz 5� v2l�c� Ct" Renton �'L1 1-�1d�19 3 8. Gt S U' `is"� 3 d ' 6� c-J�Gt� Renton j2 r' 9. � fU� L� b�1 Renton &�;7/eJ 10. \V� vl-� �QS��CA, �UrnhrtirV\_ Renton (20w>� l�,`�a3 � �11��L3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hows each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified pan -time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seaftle-Tacoma-Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, we itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: I. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected order this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right wider this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted order RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; slid C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods mid for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the workshe and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "How worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hows). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. of, Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: k1a,su Email and Phone Number: 1. 2. 3. 4. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name SaH�l�2e`l/otar Printed Name l�cJ,►^� ab�N tJ Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. b`Z�r' i�/3 Av'G Sc City Phone Number Email Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org Renton Z��P Y3 �S 3 �, Z ,Fang Date 4/10/2023 �1zsLz3 wv\`Sc �� �\� P ��� Iv`' `�� Renton lk 0�1WI2j l aC I �/� % I Renton k6 *.s rt �\3 C Renton - i{ Zs zo2 3 Rontnn NC-ZA�\9L. -3R4-V0v -�03-MI Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. G . ES& 23 0-2 srz3 6-�SJ�-) AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January I, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter, the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed. to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 4111 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1 2. m s. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO.- The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated Signature S v0&% Printed Name Printed Name Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. city Phone Number Email Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org Deoh I,/, 1,- in S 15 (50 l yo lh � sE Renton Date 4/10/2023 Renton 20� 4qq, m, 332 S+V-cv�J ?li SS Renton yam-- 2V& r Renton �aS a3S -3}tS I Tanekc, d den 1I5;43 Sf Renton 69dDn a�II���Y>`Sn Cayce (D a5 �3 3 ;, -3 Renton v 7/�/ 7 / 0 (0 Z�I Z_ Mo�nK� or 1�a j� l Oi Renton /fa�1 I '�q-64a Renton -7qq- ILU l� 1/1is f, oft, S A/c� � C, /C hf` S �4toc r�-Ihcr f4y,. n 1-1C>5S Renton RentonJ Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage' established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months o£the current year, in this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and it. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar fors of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City. may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 1 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email .54", F ,varm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org l�113 & W1J <E�� Renton Z� �`^1•�cs�a 2.��,, Renton 3. Renton 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. �r Date 4/10/2023 t.�?l2JDI .,71,7!�s Renton ­%(c 9Lr.7_,%- el t(, Renton -�bb ,2(,5, 11trO,G Flaw LAaN, A (-u� 31 )4q('AVe ,Soe , Renton eZ23-!o79L RLXs�Ii Mnlf Ylhl�L i �'50 DuLql &e1 jw SG1S N_ a Renton Renton Renton Renton 73 �;/Q _rA3 W Z Q/2.S I/� Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. A'VZ-3 te 6-rJ 1 AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with newly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and has, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1, Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and it. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and c. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its. functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance, "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. .Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: p —ccenaT 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number city Phone Number Email OF4-710em Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1. �� �fi ti i bjP L77 (2 c Renton i 2. �uwv �ru����� CVtl ` Renton 3. _ Renton 4. L� / !�U1� ZQ�� �fC�✓�CVG� Renton Renton 5. CC� Renton 7. �1 L^" {AID✓i$ , . /% ���a1 Renton 8. C� /� . O I y / Renton 9. Renton 2z?- L / 10. / v MV11K V'lV1 Pe 1i53 5 i�ci �� 5� Renton a75 I �100 , Wo-v,@9wa o cow, I,Q7jr, Date 4/10/2023 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 125/z3 /23/z 3 AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child cue, and groceries, and they me more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each yew thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Farmers and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar yew will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar yew, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar yew will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they we under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point timing the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial par by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "How worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensue compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Dr r,m,r, Email and Ph Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1 2 3 5. 3 7 91 91 INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: ® GCCABT 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Sa ?iorm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and heath care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. I. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terns and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. S. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49,46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. IF, Name Of Canvasser Date Canvassec Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email S ` rm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1) cu Oc'-} or�o� f-' I,-)-]ho �-] Hold i P, N)5� Renton Lauv-, Is S`f l'�T 51E Renton Renton Renton ✓© �-/� ��� ,� ('��j1 ��� Renton 9. ��I JC/f�i� 1�` 9//0 J V I r -l73vL G CbS40h 5 <<g PE: S C4 10. 2 A , � Renton Renton Date 4/10/2023 C�1�slz � hs) -L1 �/ 2SI23 C' //,/ '� Renton (c' JZ� Renton W sla,3 �Tr (Y�l� UtIU14nn� lt)a� i��Jt Renton �c%?Sl��' Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: I. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. I. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about thew rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional meant of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: I. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email ssar'm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org I 1 .Ek �yasl 6(6fq NE Renton l.,ov \S13 M UIo f V V IOC pl S It 2 Renton 4-2S'30114(. 44-L— i 8. 1/,/ o— �epk-e_ Usso a Ir G/ct /'G Pt 520 V--s"Vria Ave, Renton Sf '73 1' Renton Renton 1 1z Renton � T64, Renton yZ,S ��V.3�I �1� taw LCe-�-o C;�V"0L' Nlov1fe U Renton q 3o(- Renton Renton 2),()(ogaag`/3) Date 4/10/2023 2'.;�1 z b —I; -2-3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers me well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child cue, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025,and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49,46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about thew rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter, 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. I. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or,entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52,020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer, "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to belnterpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means. a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance"shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code, Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email S ` &4 Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 1. �rzmq)4 2. 3. 4. L if 5. �LOd2n 501'3 Renton Alp} Ill Renton Renton f2 i 4 E'r �� Renton Renton 6. K a S ) �5'[AV 4�J� �Ve �/ # (o( ( Renton 91 10. 61U'4�' C� �_� Mom. �3 /' 0 \.I 1� Val-) SJJT K, ' C. rri'�l� S1 Renton ju, � -7 [Zo �s� tea.✓ � �/� S Renton 4Z(5 7 S�-14LZ Renton 2>3 e2gi _ /$2.g Renton��� Date 4/10/2023 /q /z l q/z3 w �-/Z 3 I\ �/2.3 fie'/rl/ Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3, Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 12 approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($I) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section S. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person', violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter me cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set Forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46,010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: I. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with atrademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.I60(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49,46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 41111 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton CITY OFRENTON INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL JUN 28 2023 TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: gk RECEIVED S OFFICE We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of nameCbf' ig listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Sac�ciPe`t/otez Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 1. . IR2rl'[ "k IuE—a D-6 li& 7ioT "`� Renton �%L) '�/ 2 �O• �(). 2. 3. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. S. Isab�lte. Trv� i\e� (t E� Uri { - - I S-Zos iy64" 5,F I"7�'3s` iv5w" Av.a 5- 950 Barn Renton 7 0 I - Renton QX,— �1%Q Renton 13'3`TD..�2?� G���ern�cr17Qp'IMa�il-cc>,� Renton N209 Renton Ave f ? ZLl SE l6gfh S--r- Renton t FGr�/ -13 %ltk.'...� rar/a %fah'S �ve S fiptb L 1: Renton Renton k� -'�ll -"I -V Gl 1 I V I r V 3J(nSl;lr r W l I• uw v l k- i I wf LID �Z5 ;3`1 71 - 6-77 S Ia ke i y u N' \h 1+aD i�.oil l co wt ( ! R /13 �g l 7136�9N8/g2zy ' isr2��ipr�'•,.!-��'-1-uf31.-�'�; fp,23rZ3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. ®—sccnsr - 933-M AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts wound the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to Team in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current yew. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter•, the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible Purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. I. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awaited reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall havethe following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. j. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 40 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date s-Ilaz�n /J Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 1 2. 3. 4. 5. C 8. 11 10. VJ �' �5 • ;? 5 Renton NEl7� Renton z77 50 eel IG a C-( SLR l 5f— Renton 2-r— 3 y c(3' f d � � �� [M�-<l � �iYl,u� �� '� � • 1.1�7�'( ��� Renton S�A/ 1W0ffZ1- 6X__, is 7/ /7V7`1' A16- 57 Renton //k5 6//9/23 v o� y0 �On S'�'7J� a S 7� Renton Ci2j 8U �� t2, r `7� � 6C 111, �� Renton � S3 —677 f ��lllr`Z� /V�GyL� L5f )f_N/fj-' 2(P9 Ta-lchc, Ave IVE Renton (o2D&) L 2— �- i�<-1 S 3'�a a� �(• 0�`" Renton Od 6) 03- �i12✓ �c( �a3 �r—n Renton Ovi+J9�8 � 3 V 19 (_�',/ Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. I. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonablejudgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter•, the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm[ due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the workshe and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 40 Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. ry 7. 8. 9. 10. Printed Name Printed Name Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. (5DIS SL )3q4- PL_ 55 I T fl 1h City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 :'over, Renton Renton Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 W/T/z3 22 q �15 *Fu l Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter•, the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per arum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participmejointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor, "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify m a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023,the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: p caner 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date saffo& Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 Renton 1L)J1l�C�Gt�l Renton 2s8� s'L la C Renton l'n �l J7t C hJ n 1 Ig I > v I S Renton 2 V 73� �S 9 3 Renton I n��4�yl i','vtofcj �flly 12C�~� lriltf�_U. Sf, Renton��/�3 \ �4m0 q-� Renton c�6L No Zd 1 A54(p l T` PL sf- Renton IXJN S Pti�r(� � 1�1�5 t-,'r6-Lb�4A-nlD(Z, Renton Renton Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide gray of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3, Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clew and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible Kann due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per armour or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employee6 differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers," See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. I LNrvLLlser unlu Wm rrmntl "umour Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature s ti&'z 1. RMS i WE' SWAP, A 7 ..'nz"61 L� w s: Printed Name Printed Name r -;4's+w1 `ra r`2 Z a Street and Number City Phone Number 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 1p(p l D 1 Z3 r� 5 Renton 1231E &e �i Renton rJl -f_ Renton Renton V07-3V, CVR / !s O/�/GI1T 2311 �� �� 6 �� - Renton 01 F�&r15Pr�" 1c516 IJ Renton Renton Renton Renton Renton La5_ZZz'2sS"r> Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 KA '014y 6'�-zo' z � - 2-0 z� b`2D 2a 2_;r�'z-57 6 -2 D_Zv Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they we more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49,46,160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional meant of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per woman or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date .Sa,ft#&Ilerm Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 F Jn/ .sue , '-//O = 4 / Renton 16�oZ �� Il ill 24 ` L Renton r� kk2 c6c W (A Nap d S M a13 Renton (X)2X-64) 6/7710 6. V ( -�tI-Q4A; Eft'�Iy NehrKwrl 12�)NH ZIo», pL Renton (iZ5)39q roiol <c(° (O 36 _T/tC.Dvvt� /I _ N Renton 2 Qb-4 -5377 Renton /_ �r ^�^ cI�- i'7J� `� 33� / '-F 1 - 4 Jt Renton (,druyr.z �4 I" Renton 42�---e( 7 n /' _7:2-74 JT V45A-,-) 7 h'`E- Renton .�4`-Lze Vg1(y '150 L I j et' i C4 56 Renton 2,. C/r ? /�- Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. .t AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July I, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section S. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent those months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter, 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false. report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and c. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: I. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed; Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 1 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. S. 9. 10. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date s ti0('m Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 ?'� V"� r L t2,A-c.A.v AAAL-f't- �:� Ce/6�__/�� y Renton �Z� t -5777/ a-,,tig/ vd t%jj.�jlGtJ7�l�t�i D(aA 3© C �' �/ � S. Renton '/'� 0-'l1 5"17l �3S C--e Vro W� e S3 ,217 Sb> \130 Auf. at' Renton 'Sca 37d6 Renton Renton Renton i"O$ &L�7 3309 1 81(7 P.i-P-Ik @ �"-1 .0 ," - -e 4(C((PDz3 0 3 :D1•�P�tST � �o'i�- Z?j 6-(4 -z3 A44 �loVc�UV1 I�Vle' 15,301 I7-3rdAV(7 a Renton 260 E6l b3Z`I 13-23 �6009 `7'15'�z C J'r�30 �f ST Renton 2U6 KS6 6S�CA�19c, ov\y VV4C0fAr--&? Renton a WN o cPn-r �Y 71 � �lWt ef �T�llkJ��17_I1'K91601. �;7 Renton lD� &S5-SF/(3 7�z !�-1 �; 3 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of encoring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction, The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Maker Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to opposeany policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible hamm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the workshe and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows; 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees me employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46,010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the mles and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature SaWA& timx 1. Printed Name Printed Name 2. � �J�l�lek 3. 1/ by t �� 4. 5. _/QAJ' ) L4 CC\ 6. Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. '32Z ,) City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 Renton C —l7 Z.7 Renton 6 /_7-2� Z.0,0 N�,45 7� Renton (5A1171 Z3 ryAc o(,P IG63,:�i M Renton Renton iC�-A"'5<�-' U�U20 123"d A-Jf- SEF Renton (tsAJ,j-7 QA-W,li �. Keh i 6(-2-0 Renton 16'k I23✓e, S(_ Renton Renton 0(1-4 - 20a3 (p-2o-23 �O-ao-as Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child cue, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and -Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023-new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Pbase-In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: I. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section S. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and it. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. - 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation wider this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation, For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined a; set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade more, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or winds. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: ® BCC/IBT 933-M We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 ,r., it , ( 2. G vw a nj cj s. 6. a to. K, 5Sll �V;hl nms Avi "(25 PCi 't� 157LI� AVM Sb C'3n1o5 jp-VrLC0,' I�9G'c Sri. 100 5--' 0o't, ,--1, (' %fj Mom, / - czS' Renton 253 -<�y 4-7(;Lwsomis; Renton n Renton Rent (�E6—'�)�( ,z>0V a Renton�ggUSI4 130 Berl �g►� �;l,cow, 5��`1/23 ytL -cz,(kq5 114,d �It ' y C e- G- ik 2� Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employms. Section 1. Findings. I I - l. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts mound the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bus, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers we well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health cue, child cue, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Newby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health cue while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuing that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by tatty of Tukwila Initiative Measure No: 1; approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Eamers and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Pbase-In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per how. yw 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time, employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar yew will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current yew. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter, the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship' or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and Ire person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section S. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per i mnum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 1952.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that we unrelated to their claims. �3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clew and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. - 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement,' restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) yews. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: I. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terns shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating,. owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees me employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.463 60(2)(c), "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or slate law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within -30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance ire declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Dt vase, Email and Ph Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number city Phone Number Email sao k&&I/O&T Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org wdlel muff6kv Lv 11 NO I5-7-.z,<F I Renton htle Renton PS7 (o t2-1 P�v54 C`o 1O 1l i 15 7`h C� 15_10y I215rAAft s0 5 72Z f Renton U Renton Renton Renton Renton / S 76S , S� Renton 1S73S IIP SE Renton Date 4/10/2023 6 — a -2Z CC7 J S -7% 61 (( fs b Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working Families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to m employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 11 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are underjoint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree toawhich the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. _e 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of my right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the: adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Aoyperson or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. ` Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. ' Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade name, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all Franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See File Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: Canvasser Email and Phone Number: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature Printed Name Street and Number City Phone Number Email Date Sa"e& Printed Name 1234 Anywhere St. Renton 206-555-1234 maria@something.org 4/10/2023 Renton Luj v L���%� ►i C r?�^cp �vn w ! l2 ZZidQ �l% Renton QIZ 66 12, ��{^y rS Renton �6�� _�6 (�fi.�P�icS®G w�,c C (�uc G"LIJ -zZ s Renton I _ �9/ 23 1� (�.i✓ � li �`L �>� � E � � Renton � ( , i � 1.� 'C•P (�,S �\�� 1 / �✓� \j / ���/! Renton I )1"I rlo/l/lA���� y A V' 1 Renton 'LT1n Renton ��' ✓�( (� ��n.�(r7 ��� ��1 .7.Renton ter9 ,� /f / / �ro-P Alp A Renton 71 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the lugestjob centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide array of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent, 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they straggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January I thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiving through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have tire skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. I. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7. The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per arum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees are similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or their job titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Rulemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to annually certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers" See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hoes). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder. of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: vasser Email and Phone Number: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Raising The Minimum Wage In Renton INITIATIVE PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE RENTON CITY COUNCIL TO: The City Council of the City of Renton: We, the undersigned registered voters of the City of Renton, State of Washington, residing at the addresses set forth opposite our respective names, being equal to fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of names of persons listed as registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election, respectfully request that the following ordinance be enacted by the City Council or, if not so enacted, be submitted to a vote of the residents of the City. The title of the said ordinance is as follows: ORDINANCE CONCERNING LABOR STANDARDS FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES A full, true and correct copy of the ordinance is attached to this Petition. Each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of the City of Renton, State of Washington; and my residence is correctly stated. Signature s -parer Printed Name Printed Name N1 y S ( Street and Number 1234 Anywhere St. City Phone Number Renton 206-555-1234 Renton Email maria@something.org Date 4/10/2023 fn / l—p 1 / �— lam, ' VC (� ����y�' 1 �6 U�I SE �T`OL Renton I I T L II 1, b�.t > i 5,t 3 5 37'2 Warning Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seek- ing an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. AN ORDINANCE concerning labor standards for certain employees. Section 1. Findings. 1. The people of the City of Renton hereby adopt this citizen initiative addressing labor standards for certain employees, for the purpose of ensuring that, to the extent reasonably practicable, people employed in Renton have good wages and access to sufficient hours of work. 2. The City of Renton is one of the largest job centers in Washington State, with thousands of shoppers and workers visiting daily to participate in the local economy. Renton is home to The Landing shopping center, the historic Downtown Urban Center, as well as retail and commercial office and warehouse districts around the Rainier/Grady Way Junction. The City is a net importer ofjobs, with nearly 60,000 employed workers. Renton has a wide may of both long established and new and evolving business sectors. Retail businesses, restaurants and bars, auto sales, hospitality, healthcare, and office workers are well represented. 3. The statewide minimum wage is not sufficient to afford rising rents and costs of living in Renton. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2022 report, a worker making Washington's minimum wage would have to work 72 hours each week (up from 70 hours each week in 2021) to afford a modest one -bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. 4. When working families earn insufficient income due to low wages and involuntary under -employment, they struggle to pay for basic necessities like health care, child care, and groceries, and they are more likely to be evicted and become homeless. 5. Nearby King County cities of SeaTac, Seattle, and Tukwila enacted higher minimum wages in 2013, 2014, and 2022 respectively, but until now Renton has not followed suit. 6. Children growing up in poverty experience insecurity with housing, nutrition, and health care while enduring other hardships that prevent their ability to learn in school. Full time working parents must be able to reasonably provide for their family to ensure access to the opportunities and promise of public education. Section 2. Intent. It is the intent of the people to establish fair labor standards and protect the rights of workers by: (1) ensuring that the vast majority of employees in the City of Renton receive a minimum wage comparable to employees in the nearby cities of Tukwila, SeaTac, and Seattle; (2) requiring covered employers to offer additional hours of work to qualified part-time employees before hiring new employees to fill those hours; and (3) adopting enforcement requirements. Section 3. Large Employers Shall Pay Minimum Wages Comparable to Those in Nearby Cities. 1. Effective July 1, 2024, every large employer shall pay to each employee an hourly wage of not less than the 2023 new minimum wage rate in the City of Tukwila, established by City of Tukwila Initiative Measure No. 1, approved by voters in November 2022, adjusted for 2024 by the annual rate of inflation. 2. On January 1, 2025, and on each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage shall increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power. 3. By December 31, 2023, and by October 15 of each year thereafter, the Finance Department shall establish and publish the applicable hourly minimum wage for the following year using the annual rate of inflation. 4. For purposes of this chapter, the annual rate of inflation means 100 percent of the annual average growth rate of the bi-monthly Seattle -Tacoma -Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, termed CPI-W, for the 12-month period ending in August, provided that the percentage increase shall not be less than zero. 5. An employer must pay to its employees: a. All tips and gratuities; and b. All service charges as defined under RCW 49.46.160 except those that, pursuant to RCW 49.46.160, are itemized as not being payable to the employee or employees servicing the customer. Tips and service charges paid to an employee are in addition to, and may not count towards, the employee's hourly minimum wage. Section 4. Other Covered Employers Shall Have a Multiyear Phase -In Period. Other covered employers shall phase in the new minimum wage, as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2024, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus Two Dollars ($2) per hour. 2. Effective July 1, 2025, other covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3 minus One Dollar ($1) per hour. 3. Effective July 1, 2026, and thereafter, all covered employers shall pay employees not less than the hourly minimum wage established under Section 3. Section 5. Coverage and Employer Classifications. 1. Covered employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage established by this chapter for each hour worked within the City. 2. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the average number of employees during all weeks in the previous calendar year in which the employer had at least one employee. For employers that did not have any employees during the previous calendar year, classification will be based upon the average number of employees during the most recent three months of the current year. In this determination, all employees will be counted, regardless of their location, and including employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment, or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity. 3. Employer classification for the current calendar year will be calculated based upon the gross revenue for the previous year. For employers that did not have gross revenue during the previous calendar year, annual gross revenue will be calculated from the gross revenue during the most recent three months of the current year. 4. For the purposes of employer classification, separate entities will be considered a single employer if they form an integrated enterprise or they are under joint control by one of those entities or a separate entity. The factors to consider in making this assessment include, but are not limited to: a. Degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities; b. Degree to which the entities share common management; C. Centralized control of labor relations; and d. Degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities. Section 6. Part -Time Employees Shall Have Fair Access to Additional Hours. 1. Before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, including hiring through the use of temporary services or staffing agencies, covered employers must offer additional hours of work to existing employees who, in the employer's good faith and reasonable judgment, have the skills and experience to perform the work, and shall use a reasonable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory process to distribute the hours of work among those existing employees. 2. This section shall not be construed to require any employer to offer an employee work hours if the employer would be required to compensate the employee at time -and -a -half or other premium rate under any law or collective bargaining agreement, nor to prohibit any employer from offering such work hours. Section 7. Retaliation Prohibited. 1. No employer or any other person shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under this chapter. 2. No employer or any other person shall take any adverse action against any person because the person has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. Such rights include but are not limited to the right to make inquiries about the rights protected under this chapter; the right to inform others about their rights under this chapter; the right to inform the person's employer, union, or similar organization, and/or the person's legal counsel or any other person about an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to bring a civil action for an alleged violation of this chapter; the right to testify in a proceeding under or related to this chapter; the right to refuse to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law; and the right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this chapter. 3. For the purposes of this section, an adverse action means denying ajob or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration -related practices, filing a false report with a government agency, changing an employee's status to nonemployee, decreasing or declining to provide additional work hours when they otherwise would have been offered, scheduling an employee for hours outside of their availability, or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason prohibited by this chapter. "Adverse action" for an employee may involve any aspect of employment, including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment. 4. No employer or any other person shall communicate to a person exercising rights protected under this chapter, directly or indirectly, the willingness to inform a government employee that the person is not lawfully in the United States, or to report, or to make an implied or express assertion of a willingness to report, suspected citizenship or immigration status of the person or a Family member of the person to a federal, state, or local agency because the person has exercised a right under this chapter. 5. There shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer or any other person takes an adverse action against a person within 90 days of the person's exercise of any right protected in this chapter. However, in the case of seasonal work that ended before the close of the 90-day period, the presumption also applies if the employer fails to rehire a former employee at the next opportunity for work in the same position. The employer may rebut the presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the adverse action was taken for a permissible purpose. 6. Standard of Proof. Proof of retaliation under this chapter shall be sufficient upon a showing that an employer or any other person has taken an adverse action against a person and the person's exercise of rights protected in this chapter was a motivating factor in the adverse action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such protected activity. 7, The protections afforded under this section shall apply to any person who mistakenly but in good faith alleges violations of this chapter. Section 8. Enforcement. 1. Any person or class of persons that suffers financial injury as a result of a violation of this chapter or is the subject of prohibited retaliation under this chapter, or any other individual or entity acting on their behalf, may bring a civil action in a court of competentjurisdiction against the employer or other person violating this chapter and, upon prevailing, shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to remedy the violation including, without limitation, the payment of any unpaid wages plus interest due to the person and liquidated damages in an additional amount of up to twice the unpaid wages; compensatory damages; and a penalty payable to any aggrieved party of up to $5,000 if the aggrieved party was subject to prohibited retaliation. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved party means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this chapter. Interest shall accrue from the date the unpaid wages were first due at the higher of twelve percent per annum or the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020. 2. For purposes of determining membership within a class of persons entitled to bring an action under this section, two or more employees me similarly situated if they: a. Are or were employed by the same employer or employers, whether concurrently or otherwise, at some point during the applicable statute of limitations period; b. Allege one or more violations that raise similar questions as to liability; and C. Seek similar forms of relief. d. Employees shall not be considered dissimilar solely because their claims seek damages that differ in amount, or theirjob titles or other means of classifying employees differ in ways that are unrelated to their claims. 3. Each covered employer shall retain records as required by RCW 49.46.070, as well as such information as the City may require to confirm compliance with this chapter. If an employer fails to retain such records, there shall be a presumption, rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence, that the employer violated this chapter for the periods and for each employee for whom records were not retained. 4. Employers shall permit authorized City representatives access to work sites and relevant records for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the chapter and investigating complaints of noncompliance, including production for inspection and copying of employment records. The City may designate representatives, including city contractors and representatives of unions or worker advocacy organizations, to access the worksite and relevant records. 5. Complaints that any provision of this chapter has been violated may also be presented to the City Attorney, who is hereby authorized to investigate and, if they deem appropriate, initiate legal or other action to remedy any violation of this chapter. 6. The City has the authority to issue administrative citations and to order injunctive relief including reinstatement, restitution, payment of back wages, or other forms of relief. 7. The City may, in the exercise of its authority and performance of its functions and services, agree by contract or otherwise to participate jointly or in cooperation with Washington State, King County, or any city, town, or other incorporated place, or subdivision thereof, or engage outside counsel, to enforce this chapter. 8. The remedies and penalties provided under this chapter are cumulative and are not intended to be exclusive of any other available remedies or penalties, including existing remedies for enforcement of Renton Municipal Code chapters. 9. The statute of limitations for any enforcement action shall be five (5) years. Section 9. A new section is added to Renton Municipal Code (RMC) Section 5-5-4 as follows: 1. The Finance Director may deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for violation of this ordinance. 2. The Finance Director must deny, suspend, or revoke any license under this chapter for repeated intentional violations of this ordinance. 3. Any action by the Finance Director under this section shall be subject to the procedures and requirements of RMC subsection 5-5-3.E, as well as other due process rights that a court may require. Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: "City" means the City of Renton. "Covered employer" means an employer that either (1) employs at least 15 employees regardless of where those employees are employed, or (2) has annual gross revenue over $2 million. "Effective date" is the effective date of this ordinance. "Employee" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. An employer bears the burden of proof that the individual is, as a matter of economic reality, in business for oneself rather than dependent upon the alleged employer. "Employer" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. "Employer classification" includes the determination of whether an employer is a covered employer and whether a covered employer is a large employer. "Franchise" means an agreement, express or implied, oral or written by which: 1. A person is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan prescribed or suggested in substantial part by the grantor or its affiliate; 2. The operation of the business is substantially associated with a trademark, service mark, trade time, advertising, or other commercial symbol; designating, owned by, or licensed by the grantor or its affiliate; and 3. The person pays, agrees to pay, or is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a franchise fee. The term, "franchise fee" is meant to be construed broadly to include any instance in which the grantor or its affiliate derives income or profit from a person who enters into a franchise agreement with the grantor. "Hour worked within the City" is to be interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, including all hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City, excluding time spent in the City solely for the purpose of traveling through the City from a point of origin outside the City to a destination outside the City, with no employment -related or commercial stops in the City except for refueling or the employee's personal meals or errands. "Large Employer" means all employers that employ more than 500 employees, regardless of where those employees are employed, and all franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchises with franchisees that employ more than 500 employees in aggregate. "Other covered employer" means a covered employer that does not qualify as a large employer. "Service charge" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.160(2)(c). "Tips" means a verifiable sum to be presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for the customer by the employee receiving the tip. "Wage" is defined as set forth in RCW 49.46.010. Section 11. Other Legal Requirements. This ordinance shall not be construed to preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater wages or compensation; and nothing in this ordinance shall be interpreted or applied so as to create any power or duty in conflict with federal or state law. Section 12. Ralemaking. Within 180 days after the effective date, the City shall adopt rules and procedures to implement and ensure compliance with this chapter, which shall require employers to maintain adequate records and to amorally certify compliance with this chapter. The City shall seek feedback from worker organizations and covered employers before finalizing the rules and procedures. Section 13. Constitutional Subject. For constitutional purposes, this measure's subject "concerns labor standards for certain employers." See Filo Foods, LLC v. City of SeaTac, 183 Wash. 2d 770, 783, 357 P.3d 1040, 1047 (2015) (upholding this statement of subject for an initiative that set a minimum wage and addressed employees' access to hours). Section 14. Codification. All sections of this ordinance except section 9 shall be codified in a new chapter of the Renton Municipal Code. Section 15. Election date. In the event that the election on this measure takes place later than November 7, 2023, the Finance Department must establish and publish the initial minimum wage within 30 days of the effective date. Section 16. Severability. The provisions of this ordinance are declared to be separate and severable. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, subsection, or portion of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any employer, employee, or circumstance, is held to be invalid, it shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this ordinance, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances. F Name Of Canvasser: Date Canvassed: and Phone Number: