Olympia council sends $20 minimum wage, Workers’ Bill of Rights to Nov. vote

(The Center Square) – The Olympia City Council on Tuesday night rejected a proposal to adopt a $20 minimum wage as part of a Workers' Bill of Rights initiative. The council voted 4-3 against passing the initiative outright. However, the council did vote unanimously to send the initiative to Olympia voters for a decision in the November election.

Ahead of the vote, members of the council expressed varying opinions about the initiative.

“Fair wages help retain staff, reduce turnover and improve service delivery,” Councilmember Jim Cooper said. “They increase retention … that is not theory, it’s proven practice.”

Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Yến Huỳnh expressed concern with passing the measure.

“For me, there are just too many questions, too many unanswered questions, and I cannot feel responsible about voting to pass it tonight,” she explained. “I don’t think that would be good policy-making. There [are] a lot of basic questions that the city council asked in the study session that we just had, and to me, we should not be having these very basic questions, so I could not in good conscience pass this tonight.”

Councilmember Dani Madrone also said she would not support the initiative without a vote of the people.

“I’m really concerned about this devolving into who cares and who doesn’t. That’s not the case. I know that we all care about how people are doing in our community,” she said. “I’ve heard a couple of commenters say this is a really simple decision to make. It’s not a simple set of policies in front of us.”

Madrone noted that signature gatherers asked voters the basic question, “Do you support a higher minimum wage?”

“They didn’t get a 20 to 30 minute presentation on all of the content of this. I don’t think the people that were signing knew the full impacts of what it was they were signing,” she explained. “We need to know the impacts to different types of businesses and how something like this would reverberate throughout the community.”

Aside from the minimum wage increase, key provisions of the Workers' Bill of Rights include ensuring fair and predictable work schedules for employees, allowing employees to pursue civil action for violations, and establishing a range of penalties for employers violating the initiative’s provisions.

Councilmember and Mayor Dontae Payne said he couldn’t support the initiative because he’s concerned about its impact on smaller businesses in the city.

“I don’t disagree with the spirit of the proposed initiative. I disagree with how it is written,” he clarified. “I disagree with the details. As the expression goes, the devil is in the details. We have a responsibility to all constituents in this community, and that includes business owners.”

During the public comment period, President and CEO of the Washington Food Industry Association Tammie Hetrick urged the council to send the measure to a public vote, so people have more time to learn about its implications and potential “unintended consequences,” noting that grocers already operate on razor-thin profit margins of about 1%.

“They would not have a choice but to increase food costs to comply with this mandate,” she said.

Those voting in favor of outright passing the initiative were Cooper, Clark Gilman and Robert Vanderpool.

Those opposed were Payne, Huỳnh, Madrone and Kelly Green.

The general election is Nov. 4.