Plan to raise Arkansas' minimum wage qualifies for fall ballot

A proposed initiated act to gradually raise the state's minimum wage by $2.50 an hour by 2021 will be on the Nov. 6 general election ballot, Secretary of State Mark Martin reported Thursday.

Leslie Bellamy, director of elections in Martin's office, said the office determined that the Arkansans For A Fair Wage ballot committee, led by attorney David Couch of Little Rock, turned in 84,526 valid signatures of registered voters. That's more than the 67,887 signatures required under the Arkansas Constitution to qualify the measure for this year's ballot.

If approved by voters, the proposed initiated act would boost the state's minimum wage from the current rate of $8.50 per hour to $9.25 on Jan. 1, 2019, then to $10 per hour in 2020 and to $11 in 2021.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and, of the states bordering Arkansas, only Missouri's minimum wage of $7.85 per hour is higher than the federal level. A proposed ballot initiative in Missouri would gradually increase that state's wage to $12 an hour in 2023.

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/aug/17/plan-to-raise-wage-qualifies-for-fall-b/