(The Center Square) – The Olympia City Council is moving ahead with discussions on a potential increase in the minimum wage and the adoption of a Workers’ Bill of Rights that could include guarantees of set schedules and other protections.
Councilmember Jim Cooper said during an Oct. 22 meeting that he hoped the full council would make progress on the proposal during the council’s Jan. 24-25, 2025, retreat.
Cooper has championed the minimum wage hike conversation and told fellow council members he was initially inspired in 2015 when the $15 minimum wage movement sparked a statewide conversation about minimum wage.
“The only thing that’s different from 2015 till now is our workers are worse off,” Cooper said at the October city council meeting.
“The Workers’ Bill of Rights asks us to implement a Seattle or King County minimum wage which translates to $20.29 an hour,” he explained.
King County’s minimum wage goes to $20.29 on Jan. 1, 2025.
Councilmember Dani Madrone pushed back, arguing a potential minimum wage increase should not be linked to Olympia Strong, the city’s adopted roadmap for economic recovery.
“I struggle with connections to the Olympia Strong plan, and these are not items that are recognized as strategies within that plan,” she said.
Madrone went on to say, “We have a whole work plan for 2025, and we need to discuss all the other priorities.”
The Center Square reached out to the Association of Washington Business for comment on the potential minimum wage increase in Olympia.
Lindsey Hueer, AWB’s government affairs director for employment law, said the organization could not offer specific comment on the proposal in Olympia but has historically advocated for state-level minimum wage rates.
“This is part of a pattern of what we’re seeing from a number of different cities and kind of enacting different ordinances, and it’s challenging for businesses because they have to adapt to what’s happening in one jurisdiction,” she said, noting the challenges for business owners who operate in several jurisdictions.
Hueer suggested the challenge for businesses and employees in Washington is not solved around wages.
“The challenge we need to face is our affordability challenge and raising the minimum wage is simply going to exacerbate the challenges that we have, rather than solve them,” she said.
According to the state Department of Labor and Industries, the statewide minimum wage that takes effect Jan. 1, 2025, will be $16.66 per hour. This is an increase of 38 cents per hour from the current $16.28 minimum.
“We are hearing on an almost daily basis of members that are saying they are strongly looking at moving operations out of Washington or most of their workforce out of Washington, and I’m not saying that’s all because of minimum wage, but that’s part of the puzzle of all the loss of business that we have,” Hueer said.
