City Council Agenda and Packet 2024 09 10 - SP

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Attachment A - Regional Minimum Wage Engagement Report EXPLORING REGIONAL o _ MINIMUM WAGE 0 Regional Engagement Strategy In the summer of 2023, elected officials from the Cities of Boulder, Longmont, Lafayette, and Louisville and the Town of Erie directed the Regional Minimum Wage Working Group to conduct a study of our regional economy and community engagement regarding a minimum wage increase. Since August of 2023, regional teams have met to scope and administer these next steps. Teams include one staff member from each of the five participating communities as well as three community representatives: one representative from the Latino Chamber of Commerce (in representation of the business community), a representative from the Self Sufficiency Wage Coalition (in representation of the workers and faith community), and a representative of Emergency Family Assistance Association (in representation of human service nonprofits). The economic analysis, which explores quantitative economic data as well as quantitative engagement data, will be provided in a separate consultant report. A standard engagement model operating at the `Involve' level of the public participation spectrum was administered across the five participating communities. While the model was consistent, there were some differences in implementation strategies that each community used. Details regarding each municipality's unique approach can be found in the five municipality -specific engagement reports. Engagement opportunities were available between mid -February until April 15th, and community members were provided options to participate virtually and in -person, with English and Spanish options at one of 14 focus group sessions and through an online questionnaire. Engagement by Numbers and Quantitative Questionnaire Data The online questionnaire asked a series of open and close ended questions of respondents, including the places they worked or owned businesses, their current salary, their preferred adjustment to the local minimum wage, their sentiments about changing the minimum wage, and more. The project's economic analysis consultant, ECOnorthwest, analyzed the close -ended questions, which are attached as Appendix A to this regional engagement report. The rest of this report summarizes qualitative, sentiment -based feedback from focus group conversations and the open-ended questions on the online questionnaire. Key Regional Themes Throughout the project's engagement window, the regional team received thousands of comments through the online questionnaire and focus group sessions, both of which asked the same series of three questions of participants: Item 2 - Minimum Wage Update 19 12