minimum wage

Prop. 206, the Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families initiative is on the ballot

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While there is still legal wrangling over Prop. 205, the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol, one initiative is now certain to appear on the ballot: Prop. 206, the Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families, initiative, which would raise the minimum wage and require employers to provide paid time off.

Steve Chucri and the Arizona Restaurant Association lost their challenge on a legal technicality: their claim was time barred because it was filed too late. The lawyers in this case may have a problem, a blown deadline is one of the most frequent bar complaints made against attorneys. I’m just sayin’. Maybe Chucri will just refuse to tip for bad service.

Howard Fischer reports, High court confirms Arizona $12 minimum wage increase for November ballot:

RaiseTheWageArizonans will get to decide in November whether to hike the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 and require employers to give their workers paid time off.

In a brief order Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court said the Arizona Restaurant Association waited too long before filing its lawsuit challenging whether there were sufficient valid signatures to put Proposition 206 on the ballot. Justice Scott Bales, writing for the court, said the plain language of the statute gives foes just five days to act after the petitions are filed with the secretary of state’s office.

The high court specifically rejected arguments by attorneys for the restaurant group that the legislature, in crafting the law, must have meant that challengers have five business days. That would exclude weekends, which would have made the lawsuit timely.

Bales, however, said lawmakers know that words mean what they say.

“When the legislature wants to designate the meaning of ‘days’ in election statutes to be something other than calendar days … it has done so expressly,” he wrote. Bales said that did not happen here.

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The Fair Wages and Healthy Families initiative survives its first legal challenge

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RaiseTheWageMore good news from the courtroom on Friday. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging thousands of petitions gathered supporting the Fair Wages and Healthy Families initiative (Prop. 206) to increase Arizona’s minimum wage to $12 over the next four years. $12 Arizona minimum-wage measure on the November ballot, judge rules:

During court hearings earlier this month, the Arizona Restaurant Association argued that many of the people collecting signatures were not properly registered with the state, so their petitions should be invalidated.

The state requires paid and out-of-state petition circulators to register with the Secretary of State’s Office. They must show they are 18 or older and have an address where they can be reached. Individuals who have been charged with a felony are also not allowed to circulate petitions for pay.

“It’s a privilege to use out-of-state circulators for petitions,” attorney Roopali Desai argued on behalf of the restaurant association. “There are many, many circulators who didn’t register, so their petitions are invalid.”

She said some registration forms appeared as if they were illegally altered after a circulator turned them in, claiming there were “some shenanigans and fraud involved.”

But the ruling came down to a technicality: The law requires that signatures be challenged within five days of their submission to the Secretary of State’s Office. After a thorough discussion of whether that meant business days or calendar days, Judge Joshua Rogers dismissed the case, saying the suit hadn’t been filed in a timely manner.

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Minimum wage initiative is half way to its goal — sign the petition

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RaiseTheWageThe coalition for the minimum wage initiative in Arizona includes Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), the California-based Fairness Project, and the New York-based Center for Popular Democracy.

The Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families committee is the official filer of the initiative:

Serial No     Title/Sponsor/Description                   Filer ID
I-24-2016        The Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act     201600474

Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families
3120 North 19th Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona 85015
520-775-3247
Tomas Robles, Chairman & Applicant

Click here for full text of initiative: PDF

The Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families Campaign announced yesterday that they are about half way to their goal before the July 7 filing deadline. Supporters: Arizona halfway to $12 minimum wage:

The drive to raise Arizona’s minimum wage to $12 an hour is more than halfway toward its goal of qualifying for the November ballot, supporters announced Tuesday.

The Fair Wages and Healthy Families campaign proposes boosting the current $8.05 hourly minimum to $10 on Jan. 1, 2017, and gradually increasing it to hit $12 an hour by 2020. After that, it would be adjusted annually to reflect changes in the consumer-price index.

Tip workers would see a base hike to $9 an hour.

The initiative also would require employers to offer mandatory sick leave: five days a year for companies with 15 or more employees and three days a year for those with fewer than 15.

Tomas Robles, deputy campaign chairman, said the group has collected nearly 90,000 signatures toward the 150,642 required to qualify for the ballot.

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California first state to enact a $15 minimum wage

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After an agreement was reached between Assembly leadership and Governor Jerry Brown on Monday, this compromise bill to gradually raise California’s minimum wage to $15 hour sailed through the Assembly this week and is headed to the governor’s desk for his signature.

FightFor15-logo-Banner

The LA Times reports, Historic minimum wage measure heads to Gov. Brown:

In a move that puts California at the forefront of efforts to raise wages for low-income workers across the country, the Legislature approved a sweeping plan Thursday to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next six years, boosting the future paychecks of millions of the state’s workers.

The Senate voted 26 to 12 — with loud cheers of “Si se puede” from the gallery above — to give final approval and send the measure to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk less than one week after a legislative compromise. Brown will sign the wage hike into law in Los Angeles on Monday.

The plan passed the state Assembly earlier Thursday, 48 to 26[.]

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Fight for your right to raise the minimum wage in Arizona

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Earlier this month, the Governor of Oregon signed into law a novel tiered minimum wage bill. Gov. Brown signs ‘monumental’ Oregon minimum wage bill:

RaiseTheWageGov. Kate Brown signed a bill enacting a double-digit increase in the state’s minimum wage, a boost that could give the state the highest minimum wage in the nation by 2022.

Shortly thereafter, President Barack Obama released a statement commending Brown and the Legislature while criticizing Congress for inaction on raising the federal minimum wage.

Brown told reporters at the bill signing ceremony that increasing the minimum wage was her top priority for the 2016 legislative session. The law takes effect July 1, with a 50-cent increase in the statewide minimum wage.

Passing the minimum wage increase was no small feat. Lobbyists for business and labor groups were firmly camped on opposite sides of the wage debate. The labor groups filed ballot measures to raise the minimum wage. That effectively forced the Legislature to come up with its own solution before a costly and potentially politically damaging ballot measure fight ensued.

The compromise developed between legislators and business and labor lobbyists is novel because it creates three minimum wage tiers for the state. Rural areas will see a wage increase from the current $9.25 to $12.50 by 2022. Much of the state will use a “base wage,” which will increase to $13.50 by 2022. The third tier is in the Portland area, which will increase to $14.75 by 2022.  After 2022, the base wage will be adjusted for inflation, with the Portland wage tied $1.25 above and the rural wage $1 below the base wage.

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