I have worked for hourly wages and also for many years operated restaurants paying hourly wages. During college and around and about my service in the Army, including a tour in Vietnam, I worked as a roughneck on oil rigs throughout the west. After graduation in 1968 I roughnecked in California for the “high” wage of some $3.50 an hour before the new oil discovery in Prudhoe Bay enticed me to move to Alaska.
There I found employment roughnecking on the North Slope for the even higher wage of about $4.50 an hour until I decided to try my hand in business.
I started up Grizzly Burger in Anchorage, beginning more than two decades of hands-on involvement with the restaurant business from hiring and working with kids on their first jobs to managing and working with experienced cooks and servers.
In 1969, the year the first Grizzly Burger opened, the minimum wage was $2.10 an hour. Today, it is only $11.73. Adjusted for inflation, $2.10 in 1969 would be worth more than $17 in 2024.
Unable to get legislative or administration support for increasing the minimum wage, citizens have successfully gathered the support necessary to put an initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next three years and to implement a paid sick leave program.
This isn’t the first time the Alaska public has taken the lead on improving pay rates. In 2014, the last minimum wage citizens initiative was on the ballot because of the legislative and gubernatorial failure. The public responded with an overwhelming 69% positive vote. I believe voters will again overwhelmingly support Ballot Measure No. 1 on Nov. 5 based on the economic and social benefits it provides to the working families and Alaska businesses.
Alaska’s current minimum wage of $11.73 is around the median of all states. There are 22 states that have higher minimum wages. But then let’s compare wages to the cost of living of all states. Here Alaska has the dubious distinction of ranking sixth overall among its peers, while ranking first in the cost of food and health care and third in transportation costs.
It is easy to see that the woeful combination of the high cost of living with median wage rates leaves many Alaska families unable to make ends meet. It puts pressure on people to move away from the state and out of the job market. An unstable work force, or shortage of workers, is not good for business.
This ballot initiative also establishes paid sick leave for businesses, which makes economic sense and ensures fair living standards. Under the initiative, employees earn access to paid sick leave at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked with a ceiling of 56 hours of paid sick leave (reduced to 40 hours for employers of fewer than 15 workers). Currently, 18 states have already realized the benefits of paid sick leave and passed laws implementing this policy.
It is widely accepted that employees who go to work when they are sick but can’t afford to lose their wages are not only hurting their own health but also are risking the well-being of the rest of the workforce and customers. This was brought home to us during the COVID-19 epidemic. Businesses are not well served if there is an outbreak which contaminates employees and customers.
Ballot Measure No. 1 will make Alaska a better place to work and live. It will improve Alaska’s economy by attracting and keeping a pool of healthy, equitably paid workers for our businesses.
Please join me and the many other Alaskans in supporting this initiative.
Tony Knowles served as governor of Alaska 1994-2002.
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