The Olympia Finance Committee is leveraging existing academic research on minimum wage increases and worker protection to craft a comprehensive Workers' Bill of Rights.
At a committee meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 18, City Councilman Jim Cooper recommended tapping into studies conducted by institutions like the University of Washington, which has closely examined the impacts of Seattle's minimum wage hikes over the past several years.
"The City of Seattle has had the University of Washington a certain professor on contract since they had passed the first minimum wage," said Cooper, who represents the city council on the finance committee.
"They have been studying it in detail, including all other cities that have raised the minimum wage. If we can start there, we will save time and money."
Cooper also proposed consulting with experts in poverty issues like Dr. Ali Modarres, an economist at the University of Washington Tacoma.
He wants to focus on understanding existing studies and identifying any gaps, particularly in the area of nonwage worker protections. He also stressed the need to engage a diverse range of labor groups in the discussion.
In addition to academic research, the committee wants to analyze the potential impact of a worker rights initiative already circulating in the community. There are concerns about the costs and challenges of enforcement, as well as how it could affect different business sectors.
Another focus of the discussion was ensuring all voices are heard, particularly from Olympia's employers, including state government agencies and health care organizations.
Councilwoman Kelly Green, who also represents the city council on the finance committee, raised questions about how worker protections might affect heavily unionized environments and regional businesses with locations outside Olympia's borders.
She emphasized the importance of understanding how businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions, such as Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater, would navigate the policy.
Green noted some businesses in Olympia are already offering competitive starting wages of $21-$22 per hour. She wants to understand how these businesses sustain higher pay that could inform policy discussions.
"How could we, as a city, support that in an incentive way versus a requirement way," Green said.
While a full-scale community engagement process is not planned at this stage, the city's immediate plan focuses on research and data gathering before launching a more extensive public engagement process.
Assistant City Manager Stacey Ray said the research would likely involve some targeted interviewing businesses that are already paying higher wages.
The goal of these interviews would be to understand how these businesses are able to make that work within Olympia's unique economic environment.
City Manager Jay Burney assured the committee that the city has a $150,000 budget allocated for research work. The budget was originally earmarked for annexation work that will not be happening this year.
"We are going to use that to help get to do this (research) work … we will revisit later the budget for annexation," Burney said.
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Honestyandrealityguy
The high minimum wage is forever closing businesses, stores and restaurants. They should look for a solution, not continue the problem.
Friday, February 21 Report this
S2345S23456
Why does this need to be researched? Isn't it obvious that raising the minimum wage would raise the standard of living, benefit humans, and boost the economy? Instead of sinking that money in research, use it to give people a raise. Why waste time on research? Just implement raising the minimum wage as soon as possible.
Saturday, February 22 Report this
OlyGuy
Yes... Why waste time understanding the impact before handing out across the board increases in pay. (Sarcasm). Olympia is full of virtue signaling, half wits that throw money at problems and pat themselves on the back while never making an effort to understand the effectiveness of programs.
Sunday, February 23 Report this
Southsoundguy
Why do people here insist on copying Seattle? We’ve seen how that plays out.
Sunday, February 23 Report this
PissAnt
I don't think the Minimum wage situation in Seattle is a situation that we should be emulating. The city of olympia is too small to deal with the drawbacks of minimum wage raises. Also Seattle's policies have proven to be detrimental to the people they are trying to help, as all failed religious progressive policies are. They added the $5 service fee to Door Dashers creating less door dashing opportunities. They increased the minimum wage to $15 inside the city limits which caused a reduction in employment throughout the city.
Monday, February 24 Report this
PissAnt
I don't think the Minimum wage situation in Seattle is a situation that we should be emulating. The city of olympia is too small to deal with the drawbacks of minimum wage raises. Also Seattle's policies have proven to be detrimental to the people they are trying to help, as all failed religious progressive policies are. They added the $5 service fee to Door Dashers creating less door dashing opportunities. They increased the minimum wage to $15 inside the city limits which caused a reduction in employment throughout the city.
Monday, February 24 Report this
Stray_Rain
If understanding the impact of worker protections isn’t what the committee has been doing, then what exactly has it been doing?
Monday, February 24 Report this