Minimum wage proposal on ballot has strong support
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Oct. 14, 2014
Probably the closest to a sure thing among the five issues that will be on Arkansas general election ballots Nov. 4 is “A Proposed Act to Increase the Arkansas Minimum Wage,” listed as Issue No. 5.
A people’s initiative sponsored by a group calling itself Give Arkansas a Raise Now, the proposed act is simple and straightforward.
It would raise the state’s current minimum wage of $6.25 an hour in three stages — pushing it up to $7.50 on Jan. 1, 2015; then to $8 on Jan. 1, 2016; and finally to $8.50 on Jan. 1, 2017.
The federal minimum wage has been at $7.25 a hour since 2009, when the third step of minimum wage legislation took effect, bringing it up from $5.85 over three years. President Barack Obama’s administration has proposed an increase to $10.10, but the U.S. Senate failed to pass a bill last spring raising the level. However, some special interest groups are pushing for an increase to as much as $15.
Of the 45 states that have their own minimum wage level, only Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota and Wyoming are below the federal standard of $7.25, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Arkansas businesses with annual revenues of less than $500,000 are allowed to pay workers less than the federal minimum wage, but there are exceptions to both the state and federal wage laws. In fact, more workers are exempt from the minimum wage
than actually earn it.
Among those exempt from the federal law are tipped employees (such as waiters and waitresses at restaurants), full-time students and certain disabled workers — representing a total of some 3.3 million hourly workers nationally in 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Tipped employees may make as little as $2.13 an hour, with the rationale being that tips make up the rest.
Although it’s unclear how many Arkansans would benefit directly from a state minimum wage increase, the proposal quickly gained strong support. A Talk Business-Hendrix College poll conducted in April found that 79 percent of likely Arkansas voters said they would vote for the proposal. That included 92 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of independents in favor.
Not surprisingly, politicians on this year’s ballot starting lining up behind the proposal after reading that poll. Gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson, who had previously said any increase should be made by the Legislature, decided he would vote for the measure. So did 4th District Congressman Tom Cotton, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor.
The only candidate of note maintaining opposition is 4th Congressional District candidate Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs, although French Hill of Little Rock, seeking the 2nd Congressional District seat, has been dodging the issue.
The petitioning group went well above the signature standard of 62,507 registered voters to get the proposed act on the ballot, turning in a total of 129,989 signatures. After verifying 70,074 signatures as valid, the secretary of state’s office certified the issue for the ballot.
However, there have been two legal challenges, either of which could cause the state Supreme Court to rule that votes on Issue No. 5 not be counted. Both challenges argue that technicalities make the proposal invalid.
Little Rock businessman Jackson T. Stephens Jr. asserts in a lawsuit that Secretary of State Mark Martin should not have allowed supporters of the measure an extra 30 days to gather more signatures after their first effort came up short of the required 62,507.
Last week, though, a special master appointed by the high court to gather facts on the issue found that the secretary of state did not err in that action and that the issue had sufficient valid signatures to go on the Nov. 4 ballot. His report now goes to the Supreme Court.
The Stephens lawsuit also raised the same issue being used to challenge a proposed constitutional amendment to allow statewide alcohol sales — that the secretary of state wrongly allowed an extension of the deadline to submit petitions because of the July 4 holiday.
If the alcohol sales measure gets an adverse ruling, the minimum wage issue could also be affected because both groups were given until the Monday after the holiday to submit their initial petitions. Because such an extension has been a standard practice for years, that doesn’t seem likely to happen, though.
Arkansas has had its own minimum wage level since 1967, when then-Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller pushed a $1.25 minimum through the Legislature.
Correction: In last week’s column on Issue No. 3, a proposed constitutional amendment on ethics, state officials’ salaries and term limits, I said the proposed independent citizens commission that would be created under the law would have the power to set legislators’ expense reimbursement rates and rules. The proposal would give the commission power to set their salaries, as well as those of the state’s constitutional officers and judges.
However, the commission would be charged only with recommending expense rates to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives. The proposal would repeal the current system, requiring the establishment of a new system.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.