AG gets wording on ballot proposal

Attorney David Couch of Little Rock is proposing a ballot measure that would raise the state’s minimum wage of $8.50 per hour to $11 an hour by 2021.

The proposed initiated act is drawing criticism from Randy Zook, president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas.

Couch submitted a proposed popular name and ballot title to the attorney general’s office Thursday. The popular name is a brief summary of the proposal, and the ballot title is a lengthier description. Both would appear on the ballot.

He said the proposal is patterned after an initiated act to raise the state’s minimum wage that he wrote and Arkansas voters approved in 2014. That initiated act increased the minimum wage from $6.25 per hour to $7.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2015, then to $8 per hour in 2016 and $8.50 per hour last year.

The proposed initiated act submitted Thursday would raise the minimum wage to $9 per hour on Jan. 1, to $10 per hour on Jan. 1, 2020, and then to $11 per hour on Jan. 1, 2021, according to a copy of the proposal provided by Couch.

Couch said he has been “contacted by a group that may be interested in pursuing it as an initiative,” and he “filed [the proposal] to get approval because [the] clock is ticking.”

Zook said Friday in a written statement that: “His proposal reflects a profound lack of understanding of basic economics.

“Raising the minimum this much and this quickly would cause a significant loss of work opportunities for those who need them most — young people and others seeking a chance to earn their way to better circumstances.

“Businesses would be forced to find lower cost ways to do the work they have available or would be forced to raise prices to offset the increased costs. Either way, we would all pay dearly for this half-baked idea,” he said.

But Couch countered: “The proposal makes economic sense and is simply the right thing to do.

“Study after study has found that there is no indication that a rise in the minimum wage reduces employment. [In] fact when people get paid more, the increased wages actually increase economic activity that leads to job growth,” he said in a written statement.