PHOENIX — With petitions due on an initiative to boost Arizona’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020, the head of the state’s restaurant industry is gearing up to fight the proposal.
Backers of the initiative say they’ve got more than 250,000 signatures to put the question to voters in November. They contend the state’s current minimum of $8.05 an hour, while higher than required under federal law, is insufficient to support families.
But Steve Chucri, president of the Arizona Restaurant and Hospitality Association, said Wednesday the campaign against the measure will be based on showing how much wages in Arizona have gone up since voters enacted the state’s first minimum-wage law in 2006.
Before that, Arizona employers had to pay only what was mandated in federal law, which was $5.15 an hour. The ballot measure upped that to $6.75, with a requirement for annual adjustments based on inflation that has pushed the figure to $8.05.
The 2006 measure was approved by a nearly 2-1 margin over the opposition of business groups like Chucri’s. But he says a case can be made this time that “enough’s enough.”
His comments come as Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families is planning to submit its petitions for the $12 wage, plus required paid leave, to the Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday, July 7.
Organizers have collected more than 100,000 signatures above the 150,000 needed to qualify for the November ballot, spokeswoman Suzanne Wilson said.
But Chucri said he’s not convinced the initiative will have enough valid signatures to qualify. He questioned whether petition circulators, both volunteer and paid, were careful to ensure that those who signed are eligible to vote in the state.
Arizona becomes the latest battleground over what can be considered a living wage.
Several states have enacted their own laws, often through legislation. Most recently, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that will take his state’s minimum, now $10 an hour, up to $15 by 2022 for large employers; small companies will get another year to comply.
Arizona’s law requires annual revision. Chucri pointed out that has meant a boost every year, except for two when the rate of inflation was too small for even a nickel more, the bare minimum adjustment.
The difference, though, is not great: Today’s $8.05-an-hour requirement is just 80 cents more than the federal minimum.
Assuming it’s a family’s sole source of income, $8.05 translates to $16,744 a year.
For a single person, the federal government considers anything below $11,880 a year to be living in poverty. The poverty line is $16,020 for a family of two and $20,160 for a family of three.
The challenges of living on minimum pay have driven similar living-wage efforts elsewhere in the country. But Chucri contends the idea of a $12 minimum won’t sell here. “That is too high of a wage for a place like Arizona,” he said.
“Restaurateurs are going to survive,” but they’ll simply hire fewer people, he said, pointing out that a push toward automation is already under way.
At Panera Bread, customers place their orders through computer screens and then pick up what they want. Even at more traditional sit-down places like Applebee’s, orders can be placed through tablets at each table.
Chucri conceded that is happening even in places where the minimum wage is stagnant, but he suggests approval of a higher Arizona wage would hasten the day.
He would not say how much his group and other business organizations intend to spend to kill the measure.
The most recent campaign finance reports show organizers of the initiative have raised more than $342,000, virtually all from Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA). Tomas Robles, former executive director of LUCHA, said much of that is from a grant from The Center for Popular Democracy, an organization involved in efforts to establish a $15 minimum wage nationally.
Another $25,000 in support of the $12 wage campaign came from The Fairness Project, which has its own efforts to push higher minimum wages on a state-by-state basis.
Once an opposition committee is formed, it also will be required to file financial disclosure statements.
