Arizona’s minimum wage is among the highest in the U.S, and state law requires wages to increase each year based on the cost-of-living index. Yet, many students do not feel supported by these increases.
The current statewide minimum wage for non-tipped workers is $14.70, the 13th highest in the country. That's more than double the federal minimum wage, according to the Department of Labor. However, some students at ASU feel it doesn't support them fully while enrolled in college.
Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Director Fred Yamashita of Arizona AFL-CIO — a labor federation representing 185,000 union members in over 200 local union affiliates — said the concept of minimum wage is now far different from its inception in 1938.
"The federal minimum wage, of course, hasn't been increased since 2009," Yamashita said. "It's frozen at $7.25, and everyone knows that's not nearly enough, that these just aren't jobs that are for students or dependents living at home."
Most people working in minimum wage jobs are trying to provide for their families or themselves, Yamashita said. He said a livable wage would have to be nearly double what it is currently to meet the cost of living.
The cost of living in Arizona increased above the national average in 2023 by 8.6%, according to a report by the Arizona Research Center for Housing and Economic Solutions. Additionally, the same report also noted that Arizona's homeless population in 2024 has remained over 14,000 since the year before.
"The minimum wage has been the same for a long time, or in the same range," Kamila Tequida, a sophomore studying medical studies, said.
For young people, wage stagnation can be especially difficult as they start their adult lives.
The Arizona Revised Statutes on minimum wage states the increase in the cost of living is measured by the percentage change of the previous August from the August before it — rounded to the nearest multiple of five cents. That cost-of-living change is directly added to the minimum wage.
In 2017, when the legislation included earned sick time, the minimum wage in Arizona had its largest increase from $8.05 to $10, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
In the years since then, wages have increased incrementally, ranging from 15 cents in 2021 to a $1.05 in 2023.
Tequida said she keeps seeing the prices of things rise, especially for food and rent, but not seeing a proportionate increase in the state’s minimum wage.
"There's still a lot of … the population that (is) affected by the increasing prices of everything, and how jobs are still paying the minimum wage," Tequida said.
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Kiara Guerrero, a senior studying applied business and technology solutions, said people can't realistically live off that income.
"If you're doing 40 hours a week, doing the maximum, you still probably couldn't pay rent if you didn't have a roommate, a partner to live with or a family to live with," Guerrero said. "And not everyone has that situation."
Kyle Johnson, a senior studying mechanical engineering, had a different opinion than some of his fellow students.
"My hesitation in making it higher would be the economics behind that," he said.
Johnson said that if minimum wage were to go up, "everything else goes higher, so I think keeping it how it is would be okay, mainly because I don't want to see inflated prices more than they already are."
Johnson brought up California as an example. The state of California has the second-highest minimum wage in the country at $16.50, behind Washington state's $16.66.
He said that it is not sustainable to have a minimum wage that high given the rate at which Californians are departing the state.
Yamashita said corporate employers would not struggle to comply with an increased minimum wage, though it may place additional pressure on smaller businesses. Large companies have exaggerated the impacts of the increase, he said.
"Corporations ... use this talking point and this strategy to convince small businesses that they're going to be put out of business by increased minimum wages," Yamashita said. "Their only concern are shareholders, and it's not the working class."
Edited by Carsten Oyer, George Headley and Ellis Preston.
Reach the reporter at elbradfo@asu.edu and follow @emmalbradford__on X.
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Emma Bradford is a junior studying journalism and mass communication and political science with a minor in business. She has previously worked at the Cronkite News Washington, D.C. bureau as a Politics and Money Reporter. Bradford is in her fourth semester with The State Press and on the politics desk.
