When union members employed by Clark County in Washington state agreed to raises of just 2% back in 2021, management promised that if other employees got bigger raises, the county would come back and give union members those bigger raises too. Then Clark County Council turned around and approved annual raises of 10%, 5%, and 5% for County Manager Kathleen Otto.
To protest the violation of the “me too” clause in their contracts, a coalition of four unions filed a grievance in February 2023. In July 2024, an arbitrator ruled that Clark County had indeed violated the “me too” clause and owed workers money.
That ruling is finally resulting in back pay checks for members of the four unions — Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 11, Laborers Local 335, AFSCME Local 307, and PROTEC17. On March 18, Clark County councilors approved $4 million in payments to 875 workers for raises they would have gotten in 2023 and 2024.
Back pay checks will range from about $500 to $20,000, said PROTEC17 union representative Rachel Whiteside, who called the settlement “a once-in-a-career type of win for us (and) for our members.”
A 2023 wage study conducted for the county resulted in additional raises for many positions that were underpaid. The arbitrator determined that those raises counted toward closing the gap between the raises given to coalition members and the county manager. In other words, workers who got big raises in 2023 as a result of that study won’t also get big lump sum payments from the arbitration award.
In addition to the lump sum payments, workers will also see their wages increase.
“The size of the payout is significant, but (so is) the fact that it was handled in a way that creates an ongoing benefit for members,” Whiteside said.
Workers who left the county since the start of 2024 will also get back pay.
OPEIU Local union representative Karyn Morrison said implementing the arbitrator’s decision was delayed because the coalition fought to get back pay for former employees.
The arbitrator said the county would also have to pay interest — 1% each month — if it took more than five months to pay up. But in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, the coalition agreed to waive that interest and drop a grievance they filed over Otto’s 2025 raise.
Machinists Local 1432 wasn’t part of the coalition in the last round of negotiations, but joined for the latest round. Local 1432 also had a “me too” clause in their 2021 county contract. It filed its own “me too” grievance and was able to get the same as the coalition’s award without a separate arbitration process.
