This month the minimum wage initiative approved by voters last November also goes into effect.
On February 24 approximately 16,000 Alaskans will be affected when minimum wage is raised one dollar from $7.75/hr to $8.75/hr, according to the Department of Labor and Workforce.
We asked Jackie Garcia with the Peninsula Job Center how many local employers that work through the center’s system ALEXsys might be affected.
Garcia: “ALEXsys probably has about a good 250 to 300 employers on there, so the ones that I have posted recently in the past I would say two years, maybe about just 10 [Kenai Peninsula] employers start off at minimum wage.”
As we previously reported, some are concerned the hike in minimum wage will make it more difficult for entry level workers to find jobs while others say the raise will create more jobs.
The initiative set minimum wage to increase another dollar as of January 1, 2016 and then increase according to inflation after that.
