Ballot initiative seeks to boost minimum wage

JUNEAU — Supporters of a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in Alaska turned in a petition Jan. 17 to the Alaska Division of Elections Anchorage office with 43,000 signatures in support of placing the question on the August primary election ballot.

The initiative would raise the minimum wage from the current $7.75 to $8.75 effective Jan. 1, 2015, then to $9.75 effective Jan. 1, 2016. Each year thereafter it would be adjusted annually by the change in the Anchorage Consumer Price Index, or $1 over the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater.

For four decades following statehood, Alaska paid the highest minimum wage in the nation, and now ranks 17th among its sister states.

Had the Alaska Legislature not repealed in 2003 a cost-of-living adjustment mechanism approved less than a year earlier in the bill raising the Alaska minimum wage to $7.15, that wage would be $9.53 today.

Alaskans for a Fair Minimum Wage, a ballot measure group led by three former state Labor Commission members, has sponsored the petition.

After such petitions are submitted, the Division of Elections has 60 days to review signatures and decide whether it meets qualifications to appear on the ballot.