A bill in the Arizona Legislature is attempting to battle youth unemployment and create job growth, but the benefits would come at a cost. HB 2639 would lower the state minimum wage for workers under 22 from $7.25 per hour to $5.44 per hour for the next three years.
The legislation comes more than three years after voters chose to raise Arizona’s minimum wage by passing Prop 202, an act that increases the minimum wage each January by the percentage increase of Arizona’s cost of living.
Over the past four years, minimum wage in Arizona has increased from $5.15 to $6.75 to $6.90, and now sits at its current level of $7.25.
But because of a decrease in last year’s cost of living, the state minimum wage remained at $7.25 for 2010.
The bill was approved in the Commerce committee in February in a 5-1 vote.
Rep. Robert Meza, D–Phoenix, was the only member of the committee to vote against the bill.
Meza said he is receiving e-mails from many people who disagree with the bill.
“People are pretty pissed off about it,” he said.
Meza said there are two reasons he is not in favor of the measure.
Arizonans have already voted on what the minimum wage is going to be, he said, referring to Prop 202, or the Raise the Arizona Minimum Wage for Working Arizonans Act, which was approved November 2006.
Meza said he isn’t sure if the minimum wage for those under 22 would ever go back to the original minimum wage.
A spokesman for the bill’s sole sponsor, Rep. Laurin Hendrix, R-Gilbert, said the legislator would not comment on the bill at this time.
William Boyes, an economics professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business, said in an e-mail that he supports the legislation.
“This enables [those under 22] to get more jobs and experience that they would not otherwise get,” he said. “Businesses who employ that age bracket would gain.”
Matt McCoy, the president of the ASU Polytechnic student government, said he is trying to schedule meetings with legislators to discuss the bill. The Associated Students of ASU Polytechnic is going to take a stance on this issue, he said.
“It brings up the question of equity,” McCoy said of the bill. “It creates inequality in wage scales.”
For students working their way through college right now, the current $7.25 minimum wage is something they really need, he said.
Combating the argument that lowering the minimum wage would create more job opportunity, McCoy questioned why legislators wouldn’t just lower the minimum wage for everyone, though he said he is not in favor of such an action.
“If you just keep lowering the wage and lowering the wage, it gets harder and harder for people to afford the cost of living,” he said.
Journalism sophomore Collin Fleming, an Olive Garden employee, said he makes $4.50 per hour plus tips working as a server.
Arizona’s minimum wage law allows employees to pay their workers up to $3 below the state minimum wage if they can show their employees also receive payment in tips.
Fleming said he needs the job to pay for summer school and other expenses, and lowering the minimum wage would harm young workers.
“It’s not easy, but you got to do what you got to do,” he said. “That would affect a lot of people terribly.”
The bill has passed through the House Commerce Committee, but is awaiting a floor vote.
Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu
