Thursday, October 1, 2026
For years, Olympia has prided itself on being a progressive city. A leader in compassion, equity, and bold ideas. We have taken strong stands on issues ranging from climate justice to tenant protections. This November, we have a chance to lead again by putting economic dignity at the core of our community values.
Proposition 1, the Workers’ Bill of Rights, is on the ballot, and it represents more than just a new set of regulations. It is a promise. A promise that Olympia will no longer tolerate poverty wages, unpredictable schedules, and the retaliation workers face simply for speaking up. The question before us is simple: Do we want to be a city that talks about justice, or one that practices it by building resilience from the ground up?
Prop 1 is a thoughtful, comprehensive ordinance rooted in the lived experience of our local workforce. It is designed to ensure stability and safety for our workers through these key provisions:
Wages you can survive on (all employers):
Predictable scheduling (500+ employees*):
*These scheduling provisions are specifically tailored to large employers with 500+ employees and do not apply to small or medium-sized businesses.
Workplace safety (500+ employees):
Putting $2/hour into the pockets of underpaid workers in Olympia will inject $42 million into our local economy. That’s money that workers will spend in locally owned businesses. This will stimulate growth for small businesses, creating a positive feedback loop that strengthens the economic base of our entire community. This is a more direct and efficient economic stimulus than raising taxes, as the money immediately circulates among local consumers and merchants.
Skeptics often raise concerns about impacts on the local business community. These are valid questions, and the answers are clear. Prop 1 was crafted with legal experts, labor organizers, small business owners, and workers ensuring it includes careful carve-outs and long phase-in periods for smaller employers. This ordinance doesn’t punish good businesses; it levels the playing field for fair competition.
The idea that raising wages or improving scheduling leads to job losses is a myth we’ve heard for decades. The data from other progressive cities simply doesn’t support it. Washington cities that have raised their minimum wage — like Seattle — have consistently seen job growth, improved worker retention, and reduced reliance on public assistance. When Olympia’s workers earn more, they spend more locally, fueling our own businesses.
Earlier this year, during our effort to get on the ballot, we gathered more than 13,000 signatures in Olympia. About 5,700 of those signatures were verified Olympia voters by the time they stopped counting.
When we began this campaign in August, we set a goal to knock on the door of every registered voter, not excluding anybody for their politics or likelihood that they’ll vote in this election. So far, we’ve already knocked on over 14,000 doors. Of those doors, the data we’ve tracked shows that responses have been:
65% Yes
20% Undecided
10% No
5% Other
It’s clear that the people of Olympia want this.
Proposition 1 is a local solution to a local problem. Olympia’s workers are struggling now. Waiting for slow-moving state or federal action means more missed meals, more evictions, and more burnout in our community. We have the power to act — and we must. This November, vote yes on Proposition 1 and affirm that in Olympia, dignity for every worker is nonnegotiable.
Rob Richards is the campaign manager for Yes for Olympia Workers and a resident of Olympia.
The opinions expressed above are those of the writers and not necessarily those of The JOLT's staff or board of directors. Got something to say about a topic of interest to Thurston County residents? Send it to us and we’ll most likely publish it. Click here to email to us.
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JW
"For years, Olympia has prided itself on being a progressive city. A leader in compassion, equity, and bold ideas."
Yes, other great ideas from Olympia such as allowing and supporting a regional hub (the Jungle) for rampant crime, assaults, and drug distribution and use is really a shining example of compassion, equity and bold ideas.
Other bold ideas like prioritizing parks above just about everything else and stifling commercial endeavors have done wonders for our neighboring cities that have eagerly gobbled up that commercial tax revenue.
Prop 1 looks like another bold idea to drive the economic growth of Tumwater and Lacey by driving even more business there.
Friday, October 24, 2025 Report this
Quadlok
I'm not gonna claim Olympia is especially competent among local governments, but you can't blame them for the Jungle. The owner of that parcel let folks camp there purely because he's mad he wasn't allowed to develop it due to the adjacent wetland.
Friday, October 24, 2025 Report this
TheVirtualOne
Proposition 1 is a horrible idea. It is nothing more than an intrusion on businesses and attempt to destroy the local economy with overreaching regulations. Any business owner who has to deal with it will either move to another location outside the city or just shutdown. Any new business considering Olympia will immediately disqualify it after seeing the chokehold this law creates for them and how they operate. It is regressive and will destroy businesses by increasing costs and complexity that add no value.
Friday, October 24, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
TheVirtualOne - Trump is destroying the economy right now, I thought you liked that sort of thing?
Saturday, October 25, 2025 Report this
TheVirtualOne
CobraCommander, you are stuck on a connecting flight that has nothing to do with the topic of the article. TDS Airlines.
Saturday, October 25, 2025 Report this
OlyWaRider
This OpEd fails to mention the impact to so called medium sized employers and nonprofits. Essentially Prop 1 will have a catastrophic impact on small business and nonprofits. The draconian scheduling requirements leave no flexibility for a small business or nonprofit to meet the needs of their customers. While there are fiscal penalties for a business that does not follow the scheduling requirements, there there is no accountability for employees who take advantage of the new system. Restaurants and nonprofits historically operate with very small profit margins. I do know several nonprofits where the negative fiscal impact will exceed $100,000 annually. (Don't take my word for it call them and ask). I would not be surprised to see several restaurants either closing or moving to Lacey or Tumwater. I am less concerned about the increase in the minimum wage although it is naive to think this will have any significant impact on a person's ability to afford better housing....
Finally, this is a good example of a noble idea gone wrong. Look at the fine print folks, it is not what it seems.
Saturday, October 25, 2025 Report this
GiveMeAllYourKaiju
OlyWaRider did you even read this?
First, scheduling does not affect small or medium businesses:
"These scheduling provisions are specifically tailored to large employers with 500+ employees and do not apply to small or medium-sized businesses."
Secondly, the state minimum wage will already be higher than Olympia's proposed for small businesses at 17.13/hr. Secondly the 1 dollar more per hour for medium businesses is not going tohave much of an effect at all and will take 3 years to phase in.
Please take a moment to re-read the provisions in the bill before commenting arbitrarily with false statements.
Sunday, October 26, 2025 Report this
HappyOlympian
boooooo.......vote NO on this garbage.
Sunday, October 26, 2025 Report this
GinnyBanana
What's not to like about giving people a decent wage? Employees who receive enough money to buy groceries are good for all of us. Can TheVirtualOne honestly say he can survive on $17/hr and pay all his utilities? I couldn't. There have never in living memory been so many homeless people. Everyone wishes we could help the homeless, but how many actually support giving those willing to work a wage that will support them? If someone works hard at $17 and still needs the Food Bank we are not the America that I grew up in. In an economy where almost all the social and economic supports have disappeared or been cut back severely, those working need every cent they can earn. Have a heart.
Businesses that value and invest in their employees tend to thrive better than those who treat their employees as expendable. When this country had strong salaries and wages, we were a strong country. Now huge corporations have eliminated better paying jobs and unemployment is high. Those who do have jobs are worried about losing theirs to cutbacks, shutdowns, and takeovers. We have beggars on every street corner and exit. This is not the America of my childhood that was The American Dream. It is not the America that POTUS boasts about. Just pay people enough to get buy. It's not rocket science. It's real economics.
Sunday, October 26, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
TheVirtualOne - Ginny said it wonderfully. We are all being fleeced, and we can see the signs growing every day. Trump's tariffs are destroying the economy, as the simple economics behind tariffs result in consumers paying the difference. Farmers are going bankrupt en masse right now due to his policies. 40+ million people are going to lose food aid soon. Millions more to lose health coverage. He just levelled the East Wing of the White House for a 400 million dollar ballroom ffs. It's easy to just claim someone is deranged rather than discussing the issues for what they are, but given that your party thrives on hateful rhetoric, I'm not at all surprised.
Sunday, October 26, 2025 Report this
JulesJames
Should a union angling for power bypass the decision of the Olympia City Council by taking this direct to the voters? If citizens of Olympia want to be governed and taxed according to the whims of a union local -- OK. But if good governance is the goal, this ballot measure should be voted down no matter what it pretends to promote.
Sunday, October 26, 2025 Report this
Wesley
Why do agitators like this never come to the table offering something in return for their demands? A commensurate decrease in sick leave use and increase in productivity, for example? Never anything about a mutually beneficial arrangement, just demands Demands DEMANDS!
Sunday, October 26, 2025 Report this
TheVirtualOne
I would urge anyone who has an open mind to read a recent opinion piece written by one of the Thurston County Commissioners, Wayne Fournier:
https://chronline.com/stories/opinion-lets-talk-honestly-about-prop-1-and-its-unintended-consequences,388203
In addition, the statement by GinnyBanana about current “high unemployment” is just plain false and misleading, like most of her statements. Look at any historical record of unemployment for the past 75 years and you will see the current 4.3 % unemployment rate is actually lower than the average over that period. The homeless issue has less to do with this proposition than anything you brought up GinnyBanana. A very large group of the homeless are not interested in working, but rather want to take drugs, live a life without rules, or suffer from health problems, like mental illness. Those are different things and not part of this discussion. Government should be helping those who do want to work by helping them to help themselves with training, education, schools, etc., not imposing draconian rules that interfere with the ability of business owners to run and manage their operations. Those who want to work should be helped to get job skills, but they must take responsibility and initiative, not become dependent on government to give them handouts and solve all their problems. Business owners take incredible risks and make huge investments to fill a need for their customers. Their decision to make the necessary investments consider the local market conditions, including any potential government regulations. This proposition is a negative in that equation.
Sunday, October 26, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
The Virtual One, it's interesting that you mention training and education programs for those struggling when Republicans have done nothing but cut those programs alongside all of the other social safety nets.
Monday, October 27, 2025 Report this
Mjs1976
Inflation has been beating down everyone with a family from Gas prices to every little thing. In a perfect world people could and many people should earn more money. Sadly its far from a perfect world. Driving upp minimum wage only increases cost offset inflation and then everything once again goes up the solution isnt to raise minimum wage. The solution is if you are someone wanting and needing to earn more money then its probably tike to seek a career path that you can earn a better wage and that has advancement opportunities for you to earn even more and rize through the ranks of of that chosen path. Minimum wage jobs should be a right of passage job. They should be for kids transitioning from high school to college . For people needing part-time work . I mean for craps sake a MacDonald's Taco Bell the worst fast food establishments in the world if you are out 9f town and have to hit up one of those places a meal that should be under 10 bucks is closer to 18 now on average. The problem with raising minimum wage is that salary paid workers at skilled jobs doesnt matter blue collar white coller workers that doesn't increase what they make. I grew up working in the restaurant business and i have nothing but respect for anyone working in the food service industry and you know how i made more money as a kid i worked harder i provided friendly efficient service because thata how i went from making $5.75 or right around there 1992 to making $15 to $18 bucks a hour. Driving up minimum wage at a time when business are folding and fleeing our state while jobs are disappearing health care costs in our state are going up as fast as fuel prices our state is heading towards making the middle class extinct soon its going to be whats left of the middle class and the vampire like politicians that are to stupid to to start holding themselves and their political parties responsible for turning out country into the next hot spot for those looking to live it up 3rd world style. The answer is simple and believe it or not its not spend it all as fast as we so we can apply for a department budget increase next year. The answer is spend less and dont spend the tax payers money and expect them to keep going along with the lunacy that seems to run rampant in every level or government Democrats and Republicans. You chose to become publics servants you all think you have the answers but honestly i doubt out govenor is even capable of balancing his own checkbook and somehow that idiot is in charge of the states piggy bank.. the federal government says its out fault and the state government says its Trumps. the truth is that 8ts both the state and federal governments fault. Somehhow as a society we have arrived at a place and time in our so called civilization where we are unable to sit down and discuss our grievances in a civilized manner. Its simple neither political party should ever be in a position where they have complete control a democracy isnt a democracy with out checks and balances. Instead sitting down and have a civilized conversation with the otherside and and finding middle ground both sides can be comfortable something that doesnt tax your constiuants into the poor house which incase you arent paying attention thats the next thing to completely go haywire so yes another 2008 housing crisis is right around the corner only this time its going to be a lot worse because at the jobs continue to disappear the banks are going to be a lot less willing to try and work with people when because our stupid governor has done any thing to ease the suffering at the pump hos answer is just tax tax tax. Dont fix the fraud in the government that has miss appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars and bs government funded daycare scams to god only knows what else.. how bout Mr. Ferguson you actually listen to your constiuants how about you walk a mile in the good men and women shoes that build our roads and building that actually contribute to our society. The only thing people like you and El Presidente Trump contribute is chaos smoke and mirrors its simple that oversized oompa lumpa isnt anymore or less to blame than you and your stupid little legislators. Instead of finding a happy medium that both sides can live with honestly i think we should just strip all politicians of all money they have earned "serving" our citires, counties , state and federal government al that should be lut back into state and loval government accounts . And all you so called elected officials should be placed on a giant ice burg and set a drift never to be allowed back in the country you chose to try and be leaders sadly Bob and Donald you are poor excuses and examples for how grown men and women should conduct themselves on behalf of the voters here in Washington and across our once great country. Government officials that sit at the top of their departments should all be held accountable for loss of tax payers money. They should you over see those in your accounting departments and anyone in a government job that steals from the people they swore to serve or were hired to serve friends, neighbors, and family you don't deserve to live in a decent society you deserve at best 5o be locked up doing hard time paying back everything that was miss appropriated thats at best in reality you should be cast a drift never awed to return. Our society has made it so criminals no longer are repaying there debt to those that they have committed crimes against now days yu kill someone your out 5 to 8 years you **** someone you might do 5 to 10 it just depends on if you were violent towards your victim while committing the act so be sure to spoon your victim after your done violating them and dont forget to peck on the forehead and thank them. Our state our country as citizens we need to take a long hard look at the people that are pretending to lead us. As residents of Washington and citizens of America i think we have to start seriously holding the government officials that are sleeping at the wheel or just out right screwing us our cities counties and state instead of pet them divide based on political party alliance we aren't liberals and conservatives we are Washingtonians, we are Americans and if we dont start speaking up as a society soon and ask the people we have foolishly put into power in our states and our nation thing's will only continue to get worse honestly the media is at least 65 percent complete BS the propaganda they push on the populus isn't so different from the propaganda the Nazis used to push on there people. The thing is we should all know better.
Sunday, July 19 Report this