Group seeks to increase minimum wage

COEUR d'ALENE - In a state with a minimum wage of $7.25, young people can't afford to work their way up in the world, said Anne Nesse.

As part of a group calling itself Raise Idaho, Nesse is working on a statewide ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage, which 7.7 percent of the state's workers earn.

She said there are a lot of economic arguments that can be made to support raising the minimum wage, but, "This is a human dignity issue above everything else."

Nesse, of Coeur d'Alene, is a former Democratic candidate for the Idaho House.

Raise Idaho is proposing increasing the wage to $9.80 per hour in steps during the next three years. After that, further increases would be tied to the consumer price index.

She added, "The lowest wage has to buy food and shelter."

One of the economic benefits of raising the minimum wage is the fact low-income consumers spend nearly 100 percent of their income, circulating more money into local economies, she said.

Paying low-income workers more also limits their dependence on government aid.

Like in other neighboring states, Raise Idaho is choosing the voter initiative path.

"It's almost never done by legislators," she said.

Voters increased the minimum wage in Washington, Oregon and Montana.

She said Raise Idaho already received recent polling data on the issue, and while she can't share the results, she said the outlook is good.

"It's a winning issue," she said. "That's because people get the math."

If the current minimum wage had kept pace with basic living expenses in Idaho, those workers would be making $10-$15 an hour.

With an increased minimum wage, to go along with state income and sales taxes, "We could be the ideal state to live in," Nesse said.

Raise Idaho will have to collect more than 53,000 signatures from registered Idaho voters by April 30, 2014, to get the initiative voted on by Nov. 4, 2014.

Raise Idaho, knowing 30 percent of the signatures could get thrown out, has set a goal of collecting 84,000 signatures.

Nesse said Raise Idaho, which has a website at www.raiseidaho.org, has been collecting signatures for about six weeks.

She was not aware of what the total number of collected signatures was as of Friday afternoon.