Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Seattle Chamber Of Commerce Wants To Address Region’s Growing Income Inequality

Elaine Thompson
/
AP
In this photo taken Monday, July 27, 2015, server Zachary DeYoung carries a tray of food at an Ivar's restaurant in Seattle.

The income gap in Seattle is growing and the city is becoming more like New York in its divide between rich and poor, according to a recent study done for the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Now the chamber is strategizing about ways to preserve and create more middle-class jobs.

The study, done by the Boston Consulting Group, showed that the Seattle region lost 7,000 middle-income jobs from 2009 to 2013, but gained 20,000 low-income jobs and 18,000 high-income jobs.

Seattle Chamber President Maud Daudon says it’s crucial to keep those middle-income jobs. So the Chamber is working on a partnership to bring together private businesses, philanthropic groups and the public sector to figure out how to preserve those jobs and train young people here to fill them.

"If we can broker more connection between those who need that opportunity and the jobs we’ve got, we could really move the needle very quickly on one of our biggest challenges, which is that we’re becoming more divided in terms of income," Daudon said.

Daudon says representatives from Microsoft, Starbucks, Boeing and other companies met at a recent chamber conference to come up with ideas. They include increasing access to affordable child care and teaching more job skills in schools. 

In July 2017, Ashley Gross became KNKX's youth and education reporter after years of covering the business and labor beat. She joined the station in May 2012 and previously worked five years at WBEZ in Chicago, where she reported on business and the economy. Her work telling the human side of the mortgage crisis garnered awards from the Illinois Associated Press and the Chicago Headline Club. She's also reported for the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage and for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.