City of Tacoma $15 per Hour Minimum Wage Measure, Initiative No. 1 (November 2015)

See also: City of Tacoma $12 per Hour Minimum Wage Alternative Measure, Initiative No. 1B (November 2015)

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A $15 per hour minimum wage initiative was on the ballot for Tacoma voters in Pierce County, Washington, on November 3, 2015. It was defeated, but the city council's alternative measure was approved.

If approved, the initiative would have immediately imposed a $15 per hour minimum wage on all businesses that had annual gross revenues of $300,000 or more. The initiative would also have established increases to the minimum wage each year based on cost of living as determined by increases to the consumer price index in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area.

The penalties for violating the new law, if it had been enacted, would have included jail time and fines for any employer withholding more than $5,000 from an employee. For smaller, first-time violations, the penalty would have taken the form of a $100 fine per day per underpaid employee. The responsibility of enforcing the law would have been given to the city's finance director, who would have been required to give an annual report to the city council. Moreover, the initiative sought to establish a seven-member oversight commission to periodically review the city's enforcement of the minimum wage.

When this initiative, Initiative No. 1, was certified for the ballot, the city council voted to put an alternative measure on the ballot as well. This alternative measure, Initiative No. 1B, was designed to increase the city's minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2018. As of January 1, 2015, the state-set minimum wage in Washington was $9.47 per hour. Initiative No. 1 was defeated, but the alternative measure, Initiative No. 1B was approved.

Voters answered two questions on the ballot concerning Initiative No. 1 and Initiative No. 1B. The first asked voters, "Should either of these measures be enacted into law?" The second asked voters to decide between the two measures. If a majority of voters had voted "no" in response to the first question, neither measure would have been enacted. Since a majority of voters voted "yes" in response to the first question, the initiative that received the most votes according to the second question was enacted. Voters were able and encouraged to answer both the first and second questions, even if they answered "no" to the first question.

Total campaign cash as of December 8, 2015
Support:	$8,342
Opposition:	$117,249

Election results

Tacoma, Initiative No. 1 and 1B Question 1
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		21,240	58.78%
No		14,895	41.22%

Tacoma, Initiative No. 1 and 1B Question 2
Tacoma Minimum Wage Measure	d Initiative No. 1		a Initiative No. 1B
	9,437	28.62%	23,536	71.38%

Election results from Pierce County Elections Office

Text of measure

Ballot title

The following two questions appeared on the ballot for Initiative No. 1 and the city council's alternative, Initiative No. 1B:

“

Citizens' Initiative Measure No. 1 and Tacoma City Council Initiative Measure No. 1B concern establishing a minimum wage in the City of Tacoma. City of Tacoma Citizens' Initiative Measure No. 1 would require employers of a certain size to pay employees who work in the City of Tacoma, or maintain, report to, or are supervised from, an office in the City, an hourly wage of not less than fifteen dollars ($15.00), adjusted annually by the rate of inflation. This measure would also create a citizen commission to monitor the City's administration and enforcement of the minimum wage requirements, and make violation a crime. As an alternative, the Tacoma City Council, through Resolution No. 39237, has proposed City of Tacoma Initiative Measure No. 1B. City of Tacoma Initiative Measure No. 1B would require employers to pay a minimum hourly wage to employees aged sixteen (16) and over performing work in Tacoma of not less than $10.35 per hour beginning February 2016, $11.15 beginning January 2017, and $12.00 beginning January 2018, adjusted annually thereafter based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as calculated and used by the state of Washington at that time, and requiring that an impact assessment be conducted in 2018 and every two years thereafter. 1. Should either of these measures be enacted into law? Yes ......... __ No ......... __ 2. Regardless of whether you voted yes or no above, if one of these measures is enacted, which one should it be? Initiative Measure No. 1 ....... __ or Initiative Measure No. ....... __ (quote)

”

Explanatory Statement

The following explanatory statement was prepared for Initiative No. 1 by the office of the city attorney:

“	Citizens' Initiative Measure No. 1: This measure, proposed by citizens' initiative petition would add a new chapter to the Tacoma Municipal Code entitled "Tacoma Minimum Wage Ordinance." This ordinance establishes a minimum wage of not less than fifteen dollars ($15.00), beginning immediately following enactment of the ordinance. The ordinance would apply to all employees who work more than two hours in the City of Tacoma, or maintain, report to, or are supervised from an office in the City, with the exception of employees engaged in casual labor in private homes and certain volunteers. Employers that receive exemptions or are subject to the small business phased tax credit under the City Tax and License Code are exempt from paying the minimum wage. Employers located outside of the City with gross income less than the highest dollar amount used for small business phased tax credits are also exempt. Beginning September 2016, the minimum wage would be adjusted annually by the rate of inflation using the CPI-W for urban wage earners and clerical workers for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton CMSA, effective January 1st of the subsequent year. The ordinance creates a citizen commission to monitor the City's administration and enforcement of the minimum wage requirements, and makes violation a crime. (quote)	”
—Tacoma City Attorney Elizabeth A. Pauli

Full text

The full text of Initiative No. 1 is available here.

Support

Alan Stancliff, "How to Vote Yes on Initiative One," August 23, 2015

Supporters

Initiative No. 1 was backed by 15 Now Tacoma.

Arguments in favor

Sarah Morken, who was involved with the 15 Now Tacoma movement, said, “We know raising the minimum wage has not historically had a negative effect on the economy. Working-class people spend all of their money, and they are going to be spending money in those small businesses."

She also said that the group saw the initiative process, rather than the lobbying process, as the best and fastest way to make a change. Morken stated that the Tacoma activists hoped to avoid what she described as the mistakes made in SeaTac and Seattle, pointing toward alleged loopholes in SeaTac's law and the three-to-seven-year phase-in of Seattle's $15 per hour minimum wage.

Pierce County Central Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Patty Rose said the city's alternative $12 per hour proposal, Initiative No. 1B, would not be enough of an increase to help the poor in the city. She stated, “It’s not a path to $15, it’s a path to $12. And you only need to look at the cost of living and what gas costs and more importantly what housing costs in Tacoma. That’s a poverty wage, even $12.”

Mike Ladd, a building supervisor and member of 15 Now Tacoma, called the city's proposed $12 per hour alternative "a slap in the face." Ladd also said, "We will support any increase in the minimum wage, but we feel like anything less than $15 right now is too little, too late."

Tacoma News Tribune, "Rally for higher minimum wage"

The Seattle City Council passed a resolution supporting a minimum wage of $15 per hour and the efforts toward national mobilization on April 15, 2015, to promote higher pay. The council's resolution gave the following reasons why they believed a $15 per hour minimum wage was necessary:

• Millions of low-wage workers struggle to meet their families’ basic needs and are unable to participate in civic, cultural and economic life;
• Women and minorities have a disproportionate percentage of low-wage jobs;
• About 52 percent of the front-line workers at fast food restaurants participate in some sort of assistance or welfare programs, costing taxpayers about $7 billion per year;
• The fast food industry, and others, make large profits and could distribute some of the profits to low-wage workers; and
• Many child care and healthcare professionals and teachers are struggling to survive because of low wages.

The resolution concluded:

“	The Seattle City Council supports workers across the country who are calling for a wage of $15 per hour and the right to organize. We urge employers, from fast food chains to universities, to respond to the challenge of rising income inequality by raising wages significantly so as to ensure broadly shared prosperity that permits employees to obtain basic necessities like affordable housing, health care, and education and to give their families a dignified life.	”
—Seattle City Council

Campaign finance

The following campaign contribution and spending totals were provided by the Washington Disclosure Committee and were current as of December 8, 2015.

Committee	Amount raised	Amount spent
15 Now Tacoma	$8,342.26	$5,622.91
Total	$8,342.26	$5,622.91

The table below shows the top six donors to the 15 Now Tacoma committee.

Donor	Amount
Pierce County Central Labor Council	$1,000
Dana Brownfield, Tacoma librarian	$250
Central Puget Sound Carpenters, Local 30	$250
Eric Herde, Tacoma lifeguard	$250
AFSCME Council 2	$200
Kathleen Campbell, University of Puget Sound	$200

Rallies, events and action groups

On April 11, 2015, 15 Now Tacoma sponsored an action group meeting to discuss strategy for collecting signatures and motivating voters to register and vote.

Opposition

Initiative No. 1B support logo

Opponents

Opponents of Initiative No. 1 generally fell into two categories: (1) those who opposed any increase to the city's minimum wage and (2) those who thought that a smaller minimum wage should be implemented over a longer period of time. Many in this latter group supported the city council's $12 per hour alternative, Initiative No. 1B.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce opposed this initiative.

The Tacoma City Council voted 7-1 to put an alternative measure on the ballot.

A group called $12 for Tacoma was formed to campaign in favor of Initiative No. 1B and against Initiative No. 1.

Arguments against

Tom Pierson, the president and CEO of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, said he opposed Initiative No. 1. Specifically, he was opposed to the wide application of the proposed minimum wage law. Pierson claimed that the low bar of $300,000 per year in gross revenue would have made nearly every business in town eligible for the minimum wage requirements, which would have caused financial hardships on small companies, according to Pierson. Pierson said, “You’re talking about your mom and pop businesses, your restaurants, those are all the ones who this directly affects."

Mayor Marilyn Strickland introduced the city council's alternative measure. She said she supported a more modest minimum wage increase phased in over time. Strickland said, "15 Now did what they did, I got to respect the fact they got the signatures, and it makes sense for us to come up with something that we think makes more sense for Tacoma."

Strickland also argued that a minimum wage increase at the state level would be better for Tacoma, since it would prevent the possibility of a competitive disadvantage in the job market for the city. She said, "We have a lot of smaller cities that are not that far away from Tacoma's borders, and you may have a situation where a business decides that they don't want to pay the minimum wage that we set and they can just move across the street or a few blocks away."

The $12 on Tacoma website posted the following argument in favor of Initiative No. 1B:

“	Now is the time to raise wages for Tacoma workers, and Measure 1B is the reasonable solution that makes sense for our community. 1B will raise the city’s minimum wage to $12 an hour, phased in over two years. This Tacoma-specific measure addresses income inequality and is right for the city’s workers and for the city’s economy. Measure 1B will raise the minimum wage by 27 percent (from $9.47 to $12.00), which will have a positive impact in employees’ lives. Unlike the other Tacoma minimum wage measure on the Nov. 3 ballot, 1B provides a reasonable wage increase in a reasonable time frame. Measure 1B is the reasonable and responsible alternative to Measure 1, which is too extreme for Tacoma. Measure 1 would impose on Tacoma the largest citywide minimum wage in the U.S. ($15 an hour) on Dec. 4. There would be no phase-in period to allow businesses to adjust. Vote Yes on 1B!	”
—$12 for Tacoma

Campaign finance

The following campaign contribution and spending totals were provided by the Washington Disclosure Committee and were current as of December 8, 2015.

Committee	Amount raised	Amount spent
$12 for Tacoma	$117,249.00	$109,069.37
Total	$117,249.00	$109,069.37

The table below shows the top six donors to the $12 for Tacoma committee.

Donor	Amount
Washington Restaurant Association	$31,294
Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce	$29,330
Trueblue Inc.	$5,000
Recreational Gaming Association	$2,500
Superior Linen Service	$2,500
Ross Swanes	$2,500

Editorials

• The News Tribune editorial board wrote an article urging voters to reject Initiative No. 1 and vote for Initiative No. 1B instead. The editorial argued that the immediate jump to a $15 per hour minimum wage mandated by Initiative No. 1 would have forced some small businesses to scale back or shut down, hurt the city's economy and, ultimately, resulted in a loss of jobs. The article argued that the city council's alternative, Initiative No. 1B, was designed to raise the minimum wage in a responsible, gradual way that would help low-wage workers while avoiding damage to small businesses and the economy as a whole. An excerpt of the editorial is below:

“	Tacoma’s ballot gives citizens a unique opportunity this fall — the chance to stick a shiv into their own city’s small employers. Voters should see through the false promises of the 15 Now movement and vote against Initiative No. 1. The question here isn’t whether to raise the minimum wage; it’s how to do it. Pushing Tacoma’s minimum from $9.47 an hour to $15 almost overnight is how not to do it. A far better choice is Initiative 1B, an alternative the Tacoma City Council put on the ballot as a counter to Initiative 1. This measure would raise the wage floor — in measured steps — to $12 on Jan. 1, 2018, and adjust it for inflation in following years. [...] Initiative 1 wouldn’t lay waste to Tacoma’s economy, but it would do damage, especially in households of modest means. Initiative 1B is the rational alternative. There’s a world of difference between them.	”
—The News Tribune editorial board

Background

MIT living wage study

According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the following table represented a living wage for residents of the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area as of the beginning of 2015, with comparisons to what would be a poverty wage and the state-set minimum wage:

Credit to Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

For more details about the methodology behind this study, click here.

Past activity by 15 Now

Minimum wage increase activists succeeded in achieving $15 per hour minimum wages in SeaTac and Seattle in 2013 and 2014, respectively. In SeaTac, citizens qualified an initiative for the ballot through a successful initiative petition. In Seattle, with the looming threat of an initiative and the involvement of Mayor Murray and Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, the city council was able to facilitate a compromise between some business interests and labor interests, directly passing a law that dictated a phased-in minimum wage increase to $15 per hour over a period of three to seven years depending on the size of the business and other benefits offered.

Polls

The following polls about Initiative No. 1 and Initiative No. 1b were commissioned from Moore Information by the Northwest Grocery Association. They were conducted through telephone surveys of 250 likely Tacoma voters and showed that 69 percent of respondents opposed Initiative No. 1, while 68 percent supported the $12 per hour alternative, Initiative No. 1B.

The first question asked if voters supported or opposed the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour:

$15 per hour minimum wage poll
Poll	Support	Oppose	Undecided	Margin of error	Sample size
Moore Information June 11, 2015	27%	69%	4%	+/-Unknown	250
Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

The second question asked if voters supported or opposed the alternative proposal to raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour over three years:

$12 per hour minimum wage proposal
Poll	Support	Oppose	Undecided	Margin of error	Sample size
Moore Information June 11, 2015	68%	28%	4%	+/-Unknown	250
Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Responses

15 Now Tacoma

When asked about the results of these surveys, Sarah Morken, a representative of 15 Now Tacoma, said that telephone polls with such small sample sizes were not very reliable. She stated that her organization had been carrying out an extensive door-to-door campaign and had found wide-spread support for a $15 per hour minimum wage. She said that members of her group had knocked on about 7,000 doors and that a majority of those contacted supported Initiative No. 1.

Northwest Grocery Association

Joe Gilliam, president of Northwest Grocery Association, said, "We found in the poll there is strong support to change the status quo and increase the minimum wage in Tacoma. In addition, we found that the current $15 NOW movement is too extreme for Tacoma's economy and voters recognize the value of giving employers time to phase in the increase and recognize the value of employer paid benefits, such as health insurance, that often times mean as much to an employee as their cash wages."

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing local ballot measures in Washington

15 Now Tacoma activists needed to collect at least 3,160 valid signatures by mid-June to qualify their initiative for the November ballot. The petitioners submitted about 5,500 signatures, and the Pierce County elections office found 3,231 of them to be valid, qualifying the initiative for the ballot. The city council could have approved the ordinance directly, but the council members crafted a competing measure and decided to put both before voters.

While the initiative was being circulated, Council Member Anders Ibsen predicted that the measure would go on the ballot because the signature threshold in Tacoma was relatively low, and the city council, historically, tended to push such decisions on to the voters. He said, “The citizens deserve a chance to look at it and decide for themselves."

Timeline

• November 2014: 15 Now Tacoma filed the initial paperwork for Initiative No. 1.
• December 20, 2014: 15 Now Tacoma was authorized to collect signatures for the $15 per hour minimum wage initiative.
• May 18, 2015: 15 Now Tacoma submitted 4,747 signatures for the $15 per hour minimum wage initiative.
• June 5, 2015: Pierce County elections officials verified enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot, forcing the city council to either enact the proposal or put it on the November 2015 ballot.
• July 14, 2015: The Tacoma City Council voted to put an alternative $12 per hour minimum wage measure on the ballot along with the $15 per hour minimum wage initiative.
• November 3, 2015: Election Day

Similar measures

1. Kansas City, Missouri, $15 per hour Minimum Wage Initiative Measure (November 2015) 
2. City of El Paso Fire Department Wage Raise Policy Charter Amendment, Proposition 2 (May 2015) a
3. Kansas City, Missouri, Minimum Wage Increase Veto Referendum (November 2015) 
4. Portland, Maine, Minimum Wage Increase Initiative, Question 1 (November 2015) d
5. City of Tacoma $12 per Hour Minimum Wage Alternative Measure, Initiative No. 1B (November 2015) a

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Tacoma minimum wage initiative 1. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

City of Tacoma $15 per Hour Minimum Wage Measure, Initiative No. 1 (November 2015) - Google News

See also

• Local wages and pay on the ballot
• November 3, 2015 ballot measures in Washington
• Pierce County, Washington ballot measures

External links

Suggest a link

• Pierce County Elections Office website

Support

• 15 Now Tacoma website and Facebook page

Opposition

$12 for Tacoma website, Facebook page and Twitter account

Footnotes