TACOMA — The Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) made a bold change to how it pays its employees this summer, raising their minimum wage to $32 an hour.
That number was chosen for a very specific reason, sitting just above the hourly wage needed to afford the average two-bedroom apartment in Tacoma without paying more than 30% of a worker’s income.
According to the THA, the average rent for for a two-bed unit in Tacoma is $1,643. In order to be able to pay that plus utilities, a household would need to earn around $65,720 a year, or $31.60 an hour for a 40-hour work week.
The move came after the THA found that around 60% of its full-time employees in 2022 were making less than what they call an “hourly housing wage.”
“All of our employees contribute to our mission of providing stable and sustainable housing for all, yet many of our team members have struggled to pay their bills or find housing they can afford in the city we ask them to work,” THA Executive Director April Black said in a news release.
“We work to find solutions to housing insecurity and poverty,” she added. “We cannot afford to contribute to the problem.”
Longer term, the hope for this $32 an hour minimum wage is to create a “positive ripple effect throughout the job market of Tacoma and the local economy.”
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