After February 24, 2015 Alaska will join 21 other states whose voters decided to raise minimum wage.
The initiative did not make the January 1 deadline as was stated in the initiative due to the Legislature ran overtime during the last session pushing all but the SB 21 referendum off the August ballot.
Roughly 16,000 Alaskans will be affected when minimum wage is raised one dollar from $7.75/hr to $8.75/hr.
Former Labor Commissioner Ed Flanagan with the Alaskans for Fair Minimum Wage campaign about the argument that raising minimum wage raises consumer prices.
Flanagan: “It really has never come to pass, 2003 was the best case and point in Alaska when the minimum wage went 27% literally over night. The initial bill, governor Knowles bill had been to raise it in two steps just as we’ve done, because you do want to give businesses time to adjust but they legislator had sat on it for a year. When that happened employment overall continued up at the same level it had in prior years and subsequent years and the industries that employee most of the low wages workers such as seafood processing, bars and restaurants, employment went up at a greater rate.”
Alaska’s minimum wage will rise to $9.75/hr on January 1, 2016 as planned.