As is typical of such things, there wasn't much actual news at Mayor Ed Murray's afternoon news conference updating the progress of his Income Inequality Advisory Committee. This is the task force that will ultimately advise Murray on how to craft a $15 minimum wage ordinance, and given that it has had only two meetings, mostly dedicated to organizational issues, there couldn't possibly be much interesting news to report.

Still, it's nice to have an update. Members have now been divided into subcommittees and are preparing to commission an economic impact study that will guide their recommendations. While most of their deliberations will be behind closed doors, there will be five or six opportunities for public input between now and April, including a city council hearing and an "income inequality symposium." The committee is scheduled to make its recommendations to the mayor by late April. That's a pretty tight schedule.

More interesting were some of the comments made by Murray and committee co-chair Howard Wright (of the Space Needle and hotelier Wrights), about how eager they are to avoid sending a $15 minimum wage to the ballot (presumably either as an initiative or a referendum). "I don't want to see this deteriorate into class warfare," emphasized the upper class Wright. "We as progressives must reach out and work with each other to improve the wages of people who work in this city, and not drive this to the ballot," advised Murray, warning that a ballot measure would "divide us."

Which is good. Because fear of a ballot measure is exactly what we need to keep this effort moving forward. As I mention in today's paper, a $15 minimum wage is extremely popular, and growing in support every day. When asked if he was still committed to $15 as the target, Murray unhesitatingly answered "I am." That means if Wright—the co-chair representing the business side of the table—is committed to avoiding a ballot fight, then he also must be committed to somehow getting to $15. And that's a very positive sign that some sort of acceptable recommendation can ultimately come out of this process.