King County Council Agrees To Prioritize Hiring For Low-Income

KING COUNTY, WA -- King County workers who are considered low-income or disadvantaged will have first dibs on capital construction projects under a new program approved by local leaders. The King Council Council this week agreed to established a low-income priority hiring program to provide family-wage construction jobs in economically distressed areas.

“The creation of a permanent King County priority hire program is a good step in ensuring that our economically distressed residents can begin to benefit from the booming construction industry that has taken root here,” Councilman Larry Gossett said.

The program will concentrate on providing opportunities for employment for county residents on county construction projects greater than $15 million. It will focus on primarily King County communities that by ZIP code are in the top 30% of the county in two of the following three categories:

• Have unemployment levels of eight percent or higher,
• Have more than 28 percent of residents at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, and
• Where over 70 percent of residents 25 years old or older have no college degree.

Contractors who enter into agreements on county capital construction projects will consent to making a percentage of the residents living in these ZIP codes, who have the requisite skills, a priority when hiring for the project, the county said.

“The communities targeted are home to the most disenfranchised peoples and people of color are disproportionately represented in those areas," Gossett said. "Because of institutionalized racism and sexism and I-200, women and minorities have continued to be excluded from the construction trades."

For more information, go to kingcounty.gov.

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