WAGES: Let locals decide

If you think the state of Idaho should stand on the side of caring for the young people of Idaho, now is the time to make your voice heard. The final vote in the House and the Senate will be heard in the coming weeks. The House of Representatives Business Panel in Idaho has already passed a law from committee that forbids cities in Idaho from voting on raising their minimum wages — a law incidentally brought in by ALEC, from outside the state, especially damaging to all our workers and wages.

We at www.RaiseIdaho.org ask that you stand on the side of caring for Idaho’s young people, and write as many letters to newspapers or legislators as you have time. The freedom to vote locally on this kind of issue is very important. Freedom to vote is always important, and this freedom should never be taken away. Our ability to complete state initiatives, as in surrounding states to raise this minimum is almost impossible.

Idaho’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and $3.35 per hour for waiters, is not survivable, or competitive with the states that are around us. Young people have no recourse but to leave the state if they want to get ahead. And every state around us has realized these facts: Low minimum wages hold back their young people, and their economies. These other wiser states voted with initiative law by city and state, not legislative law, to help their young entrepreneurs. And contrary to the many myths that surround raising minimum wages, no net jobs are lost, and the local economies and young people prosper. Dr. Dube, from Amherst University, has over 20 years of positive data from many states and cities.

All workers and professionals benefit from raising city or state wages, because the money circulates around the community from the energy of its young hard workers.

Our young people need us right now to stand on the side of their future in Idaho. Write letters to everyone you know and your legislators. Stand on the side of caring. “Don’t Let Idaho Fail.”

ANNE NESSE

Executive Director

www.RaiseIdaho.org

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