Minimum wage has been raised 23 times since the first time in 1938 and November’s ballot initiative two raises the question: Are we in a pattern of continually raising minimum wage?
Kenai Peninsula College Assistant Professor of Accounting Thomas Dalrymple said the costs eventually get passed on to customers.
Dalrymple: “And so you have to ask the question, why didn’t it work last time? Why didn’t last time we did this solve the problem? And the answer is every time we do it we eventually inflate prices which these workers are themselves paying and so two to three to four years from now their costs are going to be higher and whatever we raise the minimum wage to isn’t going to be enough then even if it looks much better now.”
That ballot initiative aims to raise the minimum wage of $7.75 an hour by $2 an hour over two years and adjust it for inflation after that, if passed.