Long Beach approves pay raise for city workers
Published 2:43 pm Sunday, December 21, 2025
LONG BEACH — Councilors at their final meeting of the year formally approved a hike in pay for the dozens of workers tasked with carrying out the duties and operations of the city.
The Long Beach City Council on Dec. 18 unanimously adopted an ordinance that amends the city’s salary schedule to include a 5% wage increase in 2026. The city’s budget for 2026, which councilors had previously approved in November, had already assumed the jump in pay.
A 5% wage increase is contractually allowed for unionized city employees as part of their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the city. The amended pay scale approved by the council reflects an increase for both union and non-union staff — save for the city administrator position — ranging from a yearly salary of $49,822, or $23.95 per hour, on the low end to a maximum salary of $181,768, or $87.39 per hour.
The pay scale does not apply to the city’s law enforcement officers, Long Beach Deputy Administrator Ariel Smith said, noting they are represented by a different union — the Washington State Fraternal Order of Police — than the rest of city workers and follow a different salary schedule.
The city and police union were still in negotiations over a new CBA as of the Dec. 18 council meeting.
Lift station project
The council also voted to award a bid at its meeting for the reconstruction of three of Long Beach’s lift stations — No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6. The city initially went out for bid in the fall of 2024.
Councilors authorized Mayor Sue Svendsen to enter into an agreement with Western United Civil Group, a Yacolt-based construction contractor, for just shy of $1.2 million for the lift station reconstruction project.
Western United Civil Group was the lowest of four bidders for the project, coming in below the $1.42 million estimate from the city’s engineering firm, Gray and Osborne, “which is always amazing,” said Smith.
The project is funded by grant dollars that the city had previously received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.