Governor's minimum-wage bill gets mixed response

MAT-SU — A move by Gov. Tony Knowles to raise the state's minimum wage received a mixed response from the Mat-Su legislative delegation.

Knowles submitted a bill Thursday that would raise the minimum wage from its present level of $5.65 per hour to $6.40 per hour effective Oct. 1. One year later, an additional rise would come into play, bringing the state's minimum wage to $7.15 per hour. The wage would then be adjusted each year to keep up with inflation.

Alaskans making minimum wage now earn $11,775 per year before taxes. Working for $7.15 per hour would bring them up to $14,872 per year.

At $5.65 an hour, the state's present minimum wage is the lowest on the West Coast. In Washington state, minimum wage is presently $6.72 per hour, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum-wage employees in Oregon and California earn an hourly $6.50 and $6.75, respectively. In British Columbia and Yukon, minimum-wage levels, in Canadian dollars, are $7.15 and $7.20 per hour, respectively.

"A single parent working year-round in Alaska at minimum wage earns only two-thirds of the poverty level for a family of three and cannot hope to rise out of poverty," Knowles told reporters at a Thursday press conference. "These are disturbing facts that must change."

More than 5 percent of Alaskan workers earn between $5.65 and $6.74 per hour, according to the governor's office, and more than 70 percent of them are adults. Twenty-two percent of Alaskans on public assistance earn less than $6.50 per hour.

Alaska has not raised its minimum wage since 1959, choosing instead to tie it to the federal minimum wage. Consequently, there has been no increase in the minimum wage in Alaska in three years.

Despite that, some of Mat-Su's legislative delegates expressed concern about negative impacts such a move might have on the economy or opposed it entirely. But among Republicans, they appear to be in the minority.

"I understand what the governor's trying to do," state Rep. Scott Ogan, R-Palmer, said Thursday. "It'd be awfully tough — it'd be impossible — to make a living on that kind of wage."

But such a move could also increase the cost of living in Alaska, Ogan said, as well as the rate of inflation.

"I'm not just gonna jump on the bandwagon and vote blindly for it," he said.

Another member of Mat-Su's delegation, Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, expressed his opinion of the proposed minimum-wage hike as well.

"I strongly oppose it," Kohring said.

The minimum wage is "just another government mandate on the private sector, forcing employers to meet the demands of the government," Kohring said.

Such a view will probably put him in the minority again, he acknowledged, and he appears to be correct.

Two weeks ago, Rep. Pete Kott, R-Anchorage, introduced similar legislation, but without the cost-of-living adjustment, and Senate President Rick Halford, R-Wasilla/Chugiak, expressed support for the legislation, as well.

Rep. Beverly Masek, R-Willow, said she would support Kott's bill. Elements of Knowles' bill concerned her, she said, particularly the annual cost-of-living adjustments.

"We need to see how the economy behaves," she said.

But mostly, she said she simply felt Kott's bill would find broader support among his Republican colleagues.

Still, the governor's office seemed to be taking the support for any kind of a hike in the minimum wage as a good sign.

"I believe this provision has broad bipartisan support," Bob King, the governor's press secretary said Friday.