Alaskans will vote Nov. 5 on a ballot measure that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027 and require that workers get paid for up to seven sick days a year.
To backers who collected signatures to put the question before voters, Ballot Measure 1 is about fairness for workers and overall state economic vitality.
But opponents in business groups warn that the measure, if passed, would bring dire consequences.
To Sarah Oates, CHARR’s president, the consequences of Ballot Measure 1 would be bad. “This is going to kill small businesses,” said Sarah Oates, president and chief executive officer of the Alaska Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association, known as CHARR.
Like the 2014 ballot measure that created the phased-in minimum wage increase that produced the current Alaska $11.73-an-hour level, this year’s ballot measure is largely the work of labor unions and labor advocates. One of the official sponsors, former state Labor Commissioner Ed Flanagan, was also a sponsor of the 2014 measure.
Polling suggests that the initiative is popular, and it has won support from some key groups.
A third element of the measure would prohibit employers from forcing workers to participate in meetings concerning religious or political matters unrelated to their jobs, as described in the formal statement of support published in the Alaska Division of Elections’ official pamphlet.
“Alaska workers deserve freedom from their boss’ political points of view in the workplace,” said the statement, authored by Flanagan and two other prime sponsors, Anchorage state Rep. Genevive Mina and Fairbanks business owner Carey Fristoe.
The biggest financial backer is the Fairness Project, a Washington, D.C.-based labor-affiliated organization that supports ballot issues around the nation.
According to reports filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, the Yes on 1 campaign has raised $2.6 million, with half that total coming this year and the other half last year. The Fairness Project contributed most of that, but labor unions were also big contributors.
Lining up in opposition are several business organizations.
Along with CHARR, those groups include the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, the Alaska Travel Industry Association, Alaska Support Industry Alliance and several others. Representatives of those groups cite the sick-leave mandate as the most problematic, saying it has vague language that might be especially inapplicable to highly seasonal industries like tourism.
For restaurants, mandated sick leave is particularly difficult, Oates said. “When you’re looking at an industry that requires in-person employment, on-premises employment, having somebody call out has a far more significant impact than other industries,” she said.
But the other elements are also problems for CHARR, she said.
Raising employee wages would put too much of a squeeze on an industry that has still not recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. She pointed out that Alaska, unlike some other states, does not count tips into its calculation of employers meeting the minimum wage. “Even though on paper a tipped employee looks like they’re making the minimum wage right now, in reality they’re making two, three, four or more times that, depending on where they work and time of year and whatnot.”
Opponents to Ballot Measure 1 are just starting to coordinate a campaign. A newly formed group called Protect Our Small Businesses & Jobs – Vote No on 1 has registered with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. As of Oct. 7, it reported $112 in income and $176 in expenses.
However, some business owners who support the initiative have banded together in a coalition called Alaska Businesses for Better Jobs.
Among the members is Derrick Green, owner of the Anchorage restaurant Waffles and Whatnot. At a news conference held by the group in September, Green said the sick-leave benefits he voluntarily provides to his workers paid off for the community, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The ability to go home when you have strep throat or you’re feeling nauseous or whatever symptoms may arise actually helped us as a business keep the community safer,” he said.
A higher minimum wage would boost Alaska’s economy, and it would help address the state’s chronic outmigration of working-age adults, ballot measure supporters argue.
A $15-an-hour wage is modest, particularly in Anchorage, where a large percentage of households are scraping by on low incomes, said Thea Agnew Bemben, owner of a consulting company.
While all employers would follow coalition members’ example and provide those benefits “in a perfect world,” reality requires the conditions to be set in law, said Jasmin Smith, an organizer of Alaska Business for Better Jobs and the president of the Alaska Black Chamber of Commerce.
The sick leave change would vary by the size of the employer. Employees would receive one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, with the total required per year capped at 40 hours for workers at businesses with fewer than 15 employees, and at 56 hours for workers at businesses with 15 or more employees. Employers could choose to provide more sick leave than these minimums.
Alaska’s minimum wage for 2024 is $11.73 per hour. The state will announce the 2025 minimum wage soon. Under current law, the increase is based on inflation as measured by the consumer price index in Anchorage over the previous year. If Ballot Measure 1 passes, it would increase to $13 in July 2025, $14 in July 2026, $15 in July 2027 and by inflation annually beginning in January 2028.
Alaskans are not the only voters being asked to decide questions on minimum wage increases and paid sick leave.
In Missouri, there is a ballot measure that closely resembles the Alaska measure. It would increase the state’s minimum wage in steps to $15 an hour by the start of 2026, and it would require paid sick leave at varying levels, depending on business size. It follows past minimum-wage-increasing ballot initiatives that voters passed by wide margins in 2006 and 2018.
As in Alaska, the Missouri initiative has been organized by labor unions and affiliated groups and people.
In Nebraska, a measure on the ballot would require paid sick leave, also at different levels, depending on business size.
Eight states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages of $15 or above, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and Alaska has the lowest minimum wage of the West Coast states.
As of the end of last year, 15 states and the District of Columbia had laws mandating paid sick leave, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.
Reader Comments(0)