OLYMPIA, Wash. — Should Olympia's minimum wage workers make at least $4 more per hour? It was the question on the minds of city council staff and dozens of community members Tuesday night at a vastly attended council meeting.
It comes after two labor unions, representing workers who are most impacted, came together recently to present the city with a proposal to raise the minimum wage to at least $20 an hour. However, the notion has created a lot of controversy.
Currently, Olympia workers make the state’s minimum wage of $16.28 an hour.
At Tuesday night's council meeting, the overflow room at City Hall was bursting at the seams with people signed up to publicly testify.
A dishwasher at Olympia's QB Restaurant told KING 5 he is in support of a hike. Even though he makes "a little more than minimum wage," Elm Outcault said he "can’t afford a regular apartment or anything like that."
He continued, "Anything under $20 or $25 an hour is, is impossible."
In a union member’s presentation to the city, she cited a study that found a living wage in Olympia is $24 an hour for a single adult working full-time or $41 an hour to support one child and one adult.
Misinformation quickly spread that council members were seriously considering those wage numbers, which drew serious concern and even outrage from business owners.
Left Bank Pastry’s owner expressed his opposition to KING 5 last week.
"It's gonna put us in the red. So we have to make changes. We don’t wanna raise prices. We like our prices where they’re at. We like that our customers are so generous and tip like the way they do," said Gary Potter, who owns Left Bank Pastry.
One of the city's Finance Committee members, Councilmember Clark Gilman, said Monday he feels the timeline for approving this is not ideal and wishes instead "to do more than just... explaining to the community what we’re doing, but actually consult the community."
Judging by the turnout Tuesday, the community hopes council members do just that.
At first, there was talk of approving something on this by December, but Councilmember Jim Cooper promised that an issue as important as this would not take effect in the next six months, at least.