Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Workers' Bill of Rights initiative is heading to the ballot box in a upcoming showdown that will pit the union-backed proposal against employers in the City of Olympia.
The Olympia City Council agreed to put the initiative up for consideration in the November General Election, following a failed attempt to adopt the measure directly at a meeting on Tuesday, July 22.
The initiative, brought forward by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 367 through a petition process, seeks to establish a $20 minimum wage in Olympia, new labor protections and fair scheduling standards.
The Thurston County Auditor's Office verified the required number of valid signatures for the measure to qualify for consideration by the council.
Under state law, the council had 20 days to either adopt the initiative without changes or refer it to voters.
Council member Clark Gilman initially moved to adopt the ordinance, calling it an "important step to leveling the playing field in Olympia and creating a strong Olympia where everybody has a chance to belong and an opportunity to live with dignity."
Council member Jim Cooper supported the motion, saying it was a "clear, community-driven mandate" backed by over 13,000 signatures. He said the measure is "not a radical demand, but a baseline expectation of a just and modern economy."
Cooper also tied the issue to housing affordability, noting while the council often debates zoning and affordability, it rarely addresses income.
"Olympia doesn't have a housing shortage — it has an economic mobility crisis," said Cooper, citing data showing 44% of Olympia households fall under the ALICE threshold – Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
Those are people who work, often full time, but still cannot afford basic necessities. He added housing costs have risen 55% in the past seven years, while wages have gone up 38%.
"The gap is not just a statistic. It's a trap. It keeps people stuck in the cycle of rent burden, unable to save, unable to move, unable to build wealth, and when people can't move up, they can't move out," he said.
The motion to adopt the initiative failed on a 4-3 vote, with council members Gilman, Cooper and Robert Vanderpool in favor. Mayor Dontae Payne and council members Yen Huynh, Dani Madrone, and Kelly Green voted against the proposal.
Immediately after, Green moved to refer the initiative to the voters, which passed unanimously.
Madrone admitted the Workers' Bill of Rights is too complex to adopt without further public input. She said many petition signers may not have understood the full scope of the measure.
She said she was asked many times to sign the petition, asking her if she supports a higher minimum wage, without a 20- to 30-minute presentation on its content.
At a July 17 study session, the Olympia City Council spent more than an hour reviewing the provisions of the Workers’ Bill of Rights. Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Assistant City Manager Stacey Ray gave a second, 30-minute presentation summarizing the measure.
"There are a lot of unknowns. There's probably going to be a lot of unintended consequences," she said.
"If we, as elected leaders, can't confidently support this in this amount of time, then I think the voters deserve more time to consider it."
While acknowledging the intent behind the measure, Green said its broad impacts require broader input.
Based on signature verification estimates, she noted that roughly 6,600 Olympia voters signed the petition — significant, but not enough to justify enacting it without a public vote.
"Something of this magnitude should be a community decision, not a council decision," Green said.
Payne said he supports the spirit of the Workers' Bill of Rights, but cannot back the initiative as written, citing concerns about legal clarity, budget impact and fairness.
"There are too many unanswered questions about how this will affect small businesses, nonprofits, and the city's ability to enforce it," Payne said.
He criticized the proposal's one-size-fits-all penalties and said it effectively creates an office of labor standards, an expense the city cannot currently afford.
He also raised concerns about legal exposure for small employers under the civil action provisions.
"This is not a simple 'for or against workers' issue. We have a responsibility to everyone in our community, including those who didn't sign the petition," Payne said.
Before making a decision, the city council heard public comments from more than 30 community members. Most of them directed their comments to the Workers' Bill of Rights initiative.
Isaac Wagnitz, a 20-year Olympia resident and member of UFCW Local 443, urged the city council to adopt the Workers' Bill of Rights, pushing back on concerns about its impact on small businesses.
He said rising costs and stagnant wages threaten local economies more than labor protections do at this point.
Quoting Franklin D. Roosevelt, Wagnitz said, "The best customer of American business is the well-paid worker."
He arguedhigher wages would allow residents to spend more locally, benefitting businesses and generating revenue.
"My first concern is workers, but supporting this initiative also makes long-term economic sense," Wagnitz said.
Capital Medical Center President Will Callicoat provided a perspective from the health care sector. He noted hospitals are complex environments with intricate shift structures and are already facing financial pressures.
"We are currently struggling with the impact of state Legislature tax increases equivalent to about $1.7 million for MultiCare Capital Medical Center per year," Callicoat said.
His argument focused on the need for a more comprehensive assessment of the initiative's potential unintended consequences before implementation.
Now that the initiative is heading to the ballot, city staff and council members will be restricted from advocating for or against the measure until after the election.
The city will seek volunteers for two, three-member committees to draft statements for and against the Workers' Bill of Rights ballot measure. Formal appointments will be made on Aug. 4.
If approved by voters, the Workers' Bill of Rights would take effect in 2026.
7 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
JulesJames
Union bargaining at the ballot box. Yeah - that always works out…. Like a train over a washed-out trestle.
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 Report this
terry
Let's see, Worker Bill of Rights ($), Worker access to Unemployment funds during voluntary strikes ($), Reparations ($) and a deficit municipal budget ($). What have I missed from this trajectory, oh yes, a future DOJ lawsuit against Olympia for obstructing federal immigration enforcement?
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 Report this
BobJacobs
So we're being asked to enact a complex piece of legislation with essentially no analysis of impacts. That is now way to legislate.
Bob Jacobs
Thursday, July 24, 2025 Report this
TheVirtualOne
This has very little to do with wages. The “housing shortage” was created by the government. Yeah, times have really changed. Zoning, taxes, permits, environmental regulations, etc. have been so out of control that nobody wants to build anything else because of the hassle and increased risk. Add to that the people who are holding on to their homes due to really cheap money they got at subsidized low rates when the federal government intervened to bail out all the banks. That just ends up contributing to the lack of supply out in the market because no one with a 3% loan wants to upgrade to a bigger house with a higher interest rate. The government has created this mess and would like everyone to think it’s the fault of businesses underpaying their employees. Could not be further from the truth. Watch what happens if this passes. People will stop visiting local businesses in favor of those in Lacey or Tumwater or somewhere else that’s a 15 minute drive away. Then businesses in Olympia will start closing, making an already difficult environment worse. Any potential new businesses will look elsewhere to open up. Commercial property investment will cease because of difficult market conditions that already have lots of empty units.
Thursday, July 24, 2025 Report this
jimLacey
"There are a lot of unknowns. There's probably going to be a lot of unintended consequences,"
There shouldn't be any unknowns when passing something like this. Claiming there are just means you either aren't doing your job, or you already know it is a bad idea. If you want to know how it is going to affect the community, look at other cities where they tried it already, like Seattle.
Businesses will likely survive, unless they were already on the verge of falling. Wages will go up, except for the many workers soon to be losing there jobs.
Thursday, July 24, 2025 Report this
jimlazar
I look forward to an open and spirited community debate over this measure as it goes on the ballot. It is a creative approach to a difficult set of problems.
I wish it were proposed Countywide, not just in Olympia, so that it does not adversely affect companies in Olympia to the benefit of those in Lacey and Tumwater. This is one community.
Yes, there are too many people in our community who work hard and still have a hard time affording basics like housing, groceries, auto insurance, and utility bills. When I was a low-wage earner, I lived in a house with four others; together we were able to make rent, buy food, and (with help from each other) fix what broke and make life work.
One of the challenges is that some think that low-wage workers should be able to live like state agency professionals. That has never been true, and it's not reasonable to pretend it should be true today. I worked several crappy jobs, particularly when I took a gap year and worked graveyard shift in a factory that made tools and camp stoves. Those convinced me to go back to school and learn a profession; learning a trade like auto mechanic or electrician would have been a reasonable alternative.
But No, the cause of this is not government excess. Olympia's city government did not make the cost of lumber, electrical wiring, plumbing, or concrete go up. It did not cause thousands of people to live here and work in Pierce and King Counties, driving up housing demand and prices here.
And, the federal government is busy terrifying many of the workers employed in construction who are immigrants, and that will make it harder to provide new housing at any reasonable cost. Without framers, sheetrockers, plumbers, electricians, carpetlayers, painters and roofers, a potential new home is just a pile of lumber sitting on a truck.
VirtualOne (PLEASE, sign your posts with your real name!) does make an important point: the low interest rates of the past decade did create a situation where people don't want to move out of the home they can afford. It affects not only those wanting to move UP, but also those at an age where they might downsize. But mortgage rates today are lower than they were when I bought my first house (1978) and my current home (1992).
Higher mortgage rates DO make housing seem more expensive, but in historical terms, housing costs are not extraordinarily high. Nationally, the median cost per square foot of new housing has risen slower than the median income.
One problem is that the median house size has risen from about 1100 square feet in 1950 to double that today. And this has occurred as the average household size has declined from nearly four people to just over two and a half people. Fewer people living in more space.
I plan to vote YES on the Worker's BIll of Rights. I think large companies should pay workers more than the state minimum wage. Better pay leads to better workforce retention, improved worker productivity, and a more economically stable community. It won't solve everything, but it will help. Once again, I wish this vote were Countywide, not just Olympia.
Saturday, July 26, 2025 Report this
PissAnt
I signed the petition knowing full well I would vote against this on the ballot. This well meaning concept has been proven to hurt more than help many times over in many cities. If you want less of something simply tax it. This is a tax, so you will see less jobs. Just like the initiative in seattle to get Door Dash drivers more money, simply caused less people to order door dash to avoid the increased costs. its pretty simple really. Let the market determine the wage and tax things you want less of.
Sunday, July 27, 2025 Report this