Ready to File Bob Grossfeld, a consultant for an initiative campaign to raise Arizona’s minimum wage, speaks to the media in front of boxes of petitions ready for filing with the secretary of state.

Proponents of a proposed ballot initiative that would establish a minimum wage of $6.75 an hour filed what appeared to be more than 200,000 signatures of registered voters with the Office of Secretary of State on June 26.
Officials of the Arizona Minimum Wage Coalition, flanked by union members and supporters from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), officially filed the signatures after a seven-month effort, said Rebekah Friend, the coalition’s chairwoman and current president of the Arizona AFL-CIO.
“At a time when there is so much effort put into dividing Americans we have found across the board bipartisan support for increasing the minimum wage so that hardworking Arizonans will have a fighting chance to support their families,” she said, standing in front of dozens of stacked boxes of signatures.
Ms. Friend was also joined by Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-13, who said Arizona voters will get the chance to establish a higher minimum wage after years of appeals to do so in the Legislature have “fallen on deaf ears.”
“The people of Arizona are telling everybody here at the Legislature and throughout the state that we do want to increase the minimum wage in the state of Arizona and that we do value their hard work and we do want to see this on the ballot,” he said.
“We’re going to let the voters of Arizona decide how to move Arizona forward and that would be to increase the minimum wage,” he said.
Under the proposed initiative the established minimum wage would also be adjusted each year to accommodate cost of living and inflation increases.
Though the proposal has “curbside appeal” in reality it is a bad idea, said Farrell Quinlan, vice-president of communications and federal affairs of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Uphill battle
“We don’t think Arizona should have a higher minimum wage but we expected this,” he said, adding that business groups face an “uphill battle” to defeat the proposition because the economy is currently doing well.
However, when the state of the economy runs into naturally occurring slower periods, the effects of the initiative would most harm “those it seeks to help” — low-skilled, young, entry level workers without proven employment history, he said.
“During bad times the higher minimum wage will make it more difficult to hire workers,” said Mr. Quinlan.
Also troubling is that as a ballot initiative, any changes to it would require a three-fourths vote of the Legislature as a result of the passing of Proposition 105 in 1998, he said.
Proponents of the initiative reject the assertions that a higher minimum wage will harm low-skilled workers.
Single mothers
Most minimum wage earners are women, including many struggling single mothers, said Alicia Russel, a member of ACORN, who called the current minimum wage in Arizona “immoral.”
“I am a mortgage loan officer and I see the pain of the hard working honest families that are out there and they work and are in poverty and they struggle,” said Ms. Russel. “If you work 40 hours a week you deserve a livable wage.”
Citing statistics from the Economic Policy Institute and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ms. Friend said the measure would benefit 145,000 Arizonans.
Responding to questions from reporters, Ms. Friend said she “did not believe” studies completed in other states that have found an increase in lay-offs after laws to raise minimum wages have been enacted.
The proposed initiative does contain an exemption for businesses with less than $500,000 gross annual revenue.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Arizona is one of six states without a minimum wage. Under that circumstance, the federal minimum standard of $5.15 per hour is applicable. The other states are South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Arizona is one of six states where ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage are likely to appear in 2006. The others are Nevada, Montana, Oklahoma, Missouri and Ohio.
Under state law, 122,612 valid signatures of registered voters must be filed with the Secretary of State’s Office by July 6 in order for a proposed initiative to reach the ballot.