Supporters of the Raise the Wage Renton campaign are arguing for a correction to the Renton minimum wage for 2025.

Supporters of the campaign, which pushed to add Initiative Measure 23-02 to the special election ballot in Feb. 2024, claim they have identified an error in the city of Renton’s calculation of the 2025 minimum wage. The campaign said the 3 percent adjustment from the 2024 minimum wage of $20.29, to $20.90 in 2025, does not align with the “stipulated methodology” in the city’s ordinance.

According to Renton’s ordinance, annual cost-of-living adjustments should be based on the average annual growth rate of the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Area Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers for the 12-month period ending in August. Raise the Wage Renton supporters argue the accurate growth rate for this period is 4 percent, not 3 percent, and should result in a wage adjustment of $21.10.

Raise the Wage Renton supporters claim the city calculations by the Renton Finance Department are “erroneous” because it factors only the growth rate from August 2023 to August 2024.

“An August-to-August comparison is not an ‘average’ of anything. It is simply the difference between two points from one year to the next,” said Dmitri Iglitzin, attorney representing Raise The Wage Renton, in a letter to the city. “In other words, it could be described as ‘the year-on-year growth rate of the [Consumer Price Index],’ but in no way ‘the annual average growth rate,’ which necessarily would be the average of multiple data points, each representing a year-on-year growth rate.”

The 4 percent the campaign claims is the correct rate is the average of the rates of inflation from each of the six bi-monthly rates recorded from Oct. 2023 to Aug. 2024. The letter to the city also states the wage rate of $21.10 that was calculated with a 4 percent increase is the same as the new wage rate in the city of Tukwila, which has identical statutory language to the Renton ordinance. The campaign claims Seattle has the same language and used the same method of calculations.

In a response letter, Renton City Attorney Shane Moloney said the value the city used can be found in the “August 2024 Consumer Price Indexes Pacific Cities and U.S. Cities Average” table published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“BLS’s calculations measure the ‘average’ change in the prices paid for goods and services between the two reference points,” Moloney said in the letter. “According to the BLS calculations, the applicable rate of inflation is correctly set at 3 percent.”

Moloney said the language that Raise the Wage Renton wants the city to use to interpret the ordinance differently does not exist.

“Specifically, your client insists that the city must calculate ‘the average of the six bi-monthly growth rates’ for the twelve-month periods ending October 2023, December 2023, February 2024, April 2024 and August 2024. This effectively incorporates almost two years of inflation data, contrary to the ‘12-month period’ language in Renton’s code,” Moloney said.

Maloney said RMC 3-28-3(3) designated the city’s finance department to have the authority to interpret and establish the minimum wage based on its interpretation of the rate of inflation language and they did so “appropriately and correctly.” He also said any change to the minimum wage rate now or change in the finance department’s authority would require changes to be authorized by the voters in the same manner the ordinance was approved, and the city will not take the action requested by Raise the Wage Renton because it would be “contrary to its authority.”

Representatives from Raise the Wage Renton held a press conference Feb. 10 on the steps of Renton City Hall to speak about the alleged error.

“We are here today to hold local government accountable,” Julianna Dauble, one of the steering committee members for the campaign for Raise the Wage Renton, said at the press conference. “The will of the people is not something that can just be passed on through letters from one lawyer to another. We know that democracy begins in our own neighborhoods and we know this because we gathered signatures and talked with tens of thousands of Rentonites and workers.”

Dauble said she is asking to sit down with city leaders and staff to discuss the disagreement on the numbers.

“Because I’m a fifth grade teacher and I do know how to calculate averages, I have questions,” Dauble said. “We have looked over this data numerous times and we still believe that we are correct.”

Dauble said the “dimes per hour” they are fighting over can have a meaningful impact.

“When it comes down to it, how many dollars you have each month makes the difference in not just what you eat or what medication you can afford, or if you can pay your electrical bill. It makes a difference whether or not you stay housed,” Dauble said. “If the city cares about the people who are our essential workers, they will meet with us and we will discuss the disagreement in the calculations because the impact again, on these workers is not something that they have time to argue about. They need to survive and we are here to support them in that.”

Another former steering committee member and current candidate for Renton City Council position 1, Michael Westgaard, spoke at the press conference about “standing up to injustice when workers are denied what they are rightfully owed.”

“We are past the point of calling this a simple misunderstanding or a minor error,” Westgaard said. “Let me be clear. This is not just about numbers on a spreadsheet. This is about people’s lives.”