Flagstaff City Council slows rate of minimum-wage boost

SAUNDRA WILSON

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 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.

The approval of Prop. 414 placed 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 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 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.

“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.”