Drafter
Clerk 04/16/2012
Title
AN ORDINANCE making changes to King County's procurement process; and amending Ordinance 12138, Section 18, as amended, and K.C.C. 4.16.145.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. King County's vision, as stated in the county's strategic plan, is to be "a diverse and dynamic community with a healthy economy and environment where all people and businesses have the opportunity to thrive." Among the guiding principles contained in the strategic plan are accountability, fairness and justice.
2. Employer violation of wage payment requirements runs contrary to King County's vision and guiding principles. Such violations, also known as "wage theft," can take a number of forms, including withholding an employee's last paycheck when the employee leaves a job, not paying for all hours worked, stealing tips, failing to pay overtime as required and paying less than the minimum wage.
3. Wage theft is a nationwide problem. According to a 2008 survey funded by the Ford Foundation, of the four thousand three hundred eighty-seven workers interviewed in low-wage industries in the three largest United States cities, which are Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, sixty-eight percent had experienced at least one pay-related violation of the law in the previous work week. The average worker lost fifty-one dollars out of average weekly earnings of three hundred thirty-nine dollars, for a loss of fifteen percent of earnings.
4. In Washington state, according to the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries, an average of eleven Wage Payment Act violation claims are filed each day, totaling over four thousand claims in 2010.
5. Wage theft commonly occurs in low-wage industries, but is not limited to any particular sector of the economy, and no group of workers is immune.
6. Wage theft detrimentally impacts workers and hurts businesses that follow the law. Businesses are placed at a disadvantage when competitors keep costs artificially low by unla...

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