Dan Saddler, Press Secretary State Capitol, Room 413 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-3804 Fax: (907) 465-4450 Actualities: (800) 478-6540 Web: www.akrepublicans.org Send E-Mail    or    E-Mail List: subscribe

Minimum Wage Hike Measure Passes House
HB 56 Establishes $7.15/Hour Floor; Links Raises to Inflation

(JUNEAU) - Working Alaskans earning minimum wage would see their pay rise to $7.15 per hour, and rise each year with the rate of inflation, under House Bill 56, which passed the House today.

"It's important for the Legislature to give working Alaskans the confidence that any honest labor they might take on will provide a basic standard of living for them and their families," said Rep. Pete Kott, chair of the House Rules Committee, who sponsored the bill and guided its passage through the House. "By raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation, House Bill 56 guarantees that confidence."

Though Alaska's minimum wage has always been at least 50 cents higher than the federal minimum wage rate under state law, it is still less that those set by Washington, Oregon or California, and it has become clear that the eroding effects of inflation have diluted the value of that wage over time, Kott said.

HB 56 provides that the state minimum wage would be adjusted each year to either match the rate of inflation in Alaska as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Anchorage, or to be $1 per hour higher than the prevailing federal minimum wage, whichever is greater.

"This provision of the bill will go a long way toward assuring workers at minimum wage jobs that they won't have to run faster and faster just to keep from falling behind," Kott said.

The need for such a bill was dramatized last year when more than 28,000 people signed a petition to raise the wage by ballot initiative, and polls show that 75 percent of Alaskans support a minimum wage hike and 77 percent support inflation indexing. An estimated 5 percent of Alaskans work at minimum-wage jobs, which most business experts see as stepping stones to positions with more responsibility and greater pay.

If HB 56 passes the Senate and becomes law, the petitioners will have achieved their goal without needing to place the question on the ballot, Kott said. If the Legislature passes a law that is substantially similar to a law proposed by petition, state law requires the petition to be removed from the ballot.

HB 56 was passed by the House, then passed again on reconsideration, and moves next to the Senate for consideration.

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