Fight over Tacoma’s $20 minimum wage measure headed to WA court of appeals
The city of Tacoma is continuing its efforts to prevent a “Workers Bill of Rights” from appearing on the ballot in the near future after it escalated its appeal to the Washington State Court of Appeals on Monday.
The Workers Bill of Rights, an effort to raise Tacoma’s minimum wage to $20 and increase protections for workers in Tacoma, is the result of an effort led by several activists and union members to collect signatures and put the item to the voters using Tacoma’s initiative process. Since August, the city, Pierce County and the activists behind the measure have been engaged in a legal battle over if or when the measure should appear on the ballot.
A judge ruled in September that the item must appear on the ballot in a special election in February 2026 instead of the November 2025 election as the activists hoped. The city filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that Judge Philip E. Thornton’s decision “contains errors of law and is void and unenforceable.” Thornton denied the city’s motion on Oct. 3, and the city on Oct. 6 filed documents that stated that it wanted the Washington State Court of Appeals to review Thornton’s decisions on the case.
Mayor Victoria Woodards said in a statement that the appeal is a “necessary step to resolve significant legal questions raised in the trial court’s ruling.”
“This appeal is not the end of the conversation,” the statement reads. “It is the beginning of a collaborative, city-led effort to address these issues.”
County auditor Linda Farmer referred The News Tribune to the county’s previous statements on the matter:
“We played it by the book, and the court’s ruling reflects that,” Farmer after the judge’s original ruling on the case. “Now that the court has ordered that the initiative be placed on the February ballot, we’re doing exactly that.”
Tyron Moore, co-director of Tacoma For All, which was among the groups that sued the city over the Workers Bill of Rights, criticized the appeal.
“By their legal logic, the city could derail any citizen’s initiative they disagree with,” Moore said in a statement to The News Tribune. “Behind this are business interests who don’t want to pay workers a fair wage, who profit by keeping workers on call 24/7, and who have powerful allies in city hall.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 1:13 PM.
