Minimum wage hike proposal for tipped workers won't be on the ballot
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A proposal to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers won't go on the ballot, but a judge ruled that voters will still have their say on a competing measure allowing employers to pay those workers less.
The big picture: Raise the Wage AZ announced Thursday morning that it was withdrawing the roughly 354,000 signatures it submitted to the Secretary of State's Office.
- The campaign's proposed citizen initiative would've asked voters to raise the minimum wage for all employees, including tipped workers, to $18 per hour.
- State law currently allows tipped workers to be paid $3 an hour less than other minimum wage earners. Minimum wage for most Arizona workers is currently $14.35.
- The announcement comes a week after the Arizona Restaurant Association filed a lawsuit to keep the proposal off the ballot, claiming it didn't collect the nearly 256,000 valid signatures it needs.
Yes, but: A competing measure that Republican lawmakers referred to the ballot at the urging of the Arizona Restaurant Association is still poised to go up for a vote in November.
- The Tipped Workers Protection Act, which will be on the ballot as Proposition 138, allows employers to pay tipped workers 25% less than the minimum wage if they earn a minimum amount of tips.
- That would allow them to be paid $3.58 less than the minimum wage instead of $3, according to the Arizona Mirror.
State of play: A judge rejected Raise the Wage AZ's lawsuit seeking to bar the competing proposal from the ballot.
- The group is appealing the ruling.
Zoom in: Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, the national nonprofit group behind the proposed ballot measure to raise wages, told Axios that it withdrew the signatures because it was unclear whether it had enough to get on the ballot and the group didn't want to continue spending on litigation.
- "We wanted to save our money and use it to actually get raises for people," she said.
The other side: Arizona Restaurant Association president Steve Chucri lauded the end of the initiative he called a scheme to "hike costs for Arizona businesses and families."
What's next: One Fair Wage will shift its focus to putting minimum wage raises on the ballot in several Arizona cities after this year's election. Jayaraman declined to say which cities the group is eyeing.
- Jayaraman said she's confident that voters will reject Prop. 138. "Every time we try to raise wages they engage in these same kind of deceptive tactics. And ultimately we prevail."