By Saundra Wilson
PHOENIX – After months of council meetings, hundreds of emails sent to city council members and hand wringing from supporters and opponents, Flagstaff residents have an answer about the future of the city’s minimum wage: a more gradual increase that will still reach $15 an hour on schedule.
“It’s certainly going to be a relief to the business community,” said Stuart McDaniel, the vice president of government affairs for the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce.
But he questioned Monday whether the council ordinance would be considered constitutional because the final wage increase is higher than in Proposition 414, which voters approved in November.
The Flagstaff City Council council voted March 21 for an ordinance that slows the stair-stepped wage increase, raising the wage to $10.50 an hour in July instead of $12 an hour under Prop 414.
The city wage will still reach $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2021, increasing by $1 every year.
The new city law also removes a proposition requirement that the minimum wage in the city be at least $2 above the state minimum wage through 2021.
But the city then added a provision that would extend the minimum-wage increase through 2022, placing the wage at $15.50 an hour or $2 above the state minimum, whichever is greater.
Voters had approved the city’s Prop 414 in the November election, with the proposition placing the city’s minimum wage even higher than the state minimum that voters also approved in November.
The higher Flagstaff wage divided a city where business supporters said the hikes could push small-business owners to financial ruin and proposition advocates said lower paid workers deserve a living wage.
No one spoke against the ordinance at the March 21 city council meeting, according to a video of the meeting, but Prop 414 supporters have said the overall minimum-wage increase was fair to workers.
Bobbi Wilson, a manager at Flagstaff Soap Company who had voted for Prop 414 in November, said she supports the council’s decision. She said it’s a good compromise.
Flagstaff resident Nathan Martinez spoke in favor of slowing down a wage increase, saying that without it, he might lose his job at a local Sam’s Club and be forced to move out of the city, his home of 13 years.
Martinez said he receives job coaching services from Quality Connections, a Flagstaff non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities find employment, according to a video of the meeting.
“I don’t want to start over again,” Martinez said. “If I have to move, I’ll have no friends, I’ll have no job.”
Business leaders had tried unsuccessfully to have the council approve a special election to have voters consider changing Proposition 414. But it will appear on the November 2018 ballot.