Washington Governor May Raise State Worker Minimum Wage Himself

Gov. Jay Inslee is considering ways he could raise the minimum wage for state employees – even as legislation to raise pay for all Washington workers is stalling in the Legislature.  The governor first remarked on his intentions outside the White House on Friday morning, according to this post by the Seattle Times’ Kyung M. Song.

Inslee, a Democrat, expanded on the issue later in a telephone interview with roughly a dozen Northwest reporters from Washington, D.C., saying his own administration has just started analyzing how it could raise the minimum wage for state employees and contractors.

“It’s going to be months” before anything is done on it, Inslee said, noting that he is continuing to talk to legislators about the larger issue of raising the minimum wage by up to $2.50 an hour, which he hopes will still advance in the 60-day legislative session that ends March 13. “Given the make-up of the state Senate, you can’t be optimistic it is going to pass the state Senate this year,’’ Inslee said.

Although Inslee thinks he could raise the minimum wage for contractors and employees by executive order, he said “ultimately you’d need a way to finance that.’’