Kenosha County $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)

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A Kenosha County $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question ballot measure was on the November 4, 2014 election ballot for voters in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. It was approved.

The measure enacted a county resolution calling for the state to increase the statewide minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. This advisory referendum question, which had no direct legislative effect, was put on the ballot in a cooperative effort with several other counties and cities. The group behind the request to state lawmakers was called Raise Wisconsin, and their petition to the state was featured on November election ballots due to petition drives in some cases and direct legislative resolutions from county boards of supervisors in others. In the case of Kenosha County, the county supervisors put the advisory question on the ballot themselves after a resolution calling for the measure was introduced by Supervisor Mike Goebel.

Election results

Note: Although results are final, the Kenosha County Elections Office is still listing these results as "unofficial." This article will be updated when results are certified.

Kenosha County $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		34,570	62.85%
No		20,430	37.15%

Election results via: Kenosha County Clerk's Office

Background

Due to 2005 Assembly Bill 49, which prohibited local government agencies from enacting a minimum wage different from the state minimum wage, the counties and cities that participated in the Raise Wisconsin referendum cannot directly enact a higher wage requirement. This leaves the advisory referendum, which would serve to urge state lawmakers to boost the compensation of low-wage workers, as the only opportunity to impact the issue through local ballots. At the time of the November 2014 election, the state minimum wage was $7.25 per hour.

History of AB 49

On March 30, 2004, Madison, Wisconsin, enacted a minimum wage ordinance to increase the city's hourly wage to $7.75 by 2008. In 2004, the federal and state hourly minimum wages were $5.15. The Madison Common Council highlighted the city's high cost of living versus other parts of the state and country. They argued that state and federal minimum wages “were inadequate to allow workers to meet their family’s basic needs.” Madison utilized “statutory home rule” to increase the minimum wage. Statutory home rule permitted the city to enact legislation “for the government and good order of the city, for its commercial benefit, and for the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”

An organization called Main Street Coalition for Economic Growth, Inc. sued Madison in the Dane County Circuit Court, arguing that the ordinance was beyond the scope of municipal power. Judge Maryann Sumi denied the injunction, saying the city’s minimum-wage ordinance was “a valid exercise of municipal home-rule power.”

In 2005, a group of state representatives introduced Assembly Bill 49. AB 49 was approved and provided that “[a] city, village, town, or county may not enact and administer an ordinance establishing a living wage” unless that ordinance adheres to state minimum wage laws. Moreover, it voided any local minimum wage ordinance already in effect. Governor Jim Doyle (D) signed the bill in exchange for an increase in the statewide minimum wage to $6.50. Therefore, Madison's minimum wage ordinance was invalidated.

A resolution calling for Kenosha County to raise the minimum wage, in defiance of state law, if the state did not take action on the $10.10 per hour minimum wage proposal was introduced along with the resolution calling for this non-binding advisory question. The supervisors, however, voted to reject it.

Text of measure

Ballot question

The question on the ballot was:

“

Should the State of Wisconsin increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour?

”

Full text

The full text of the resolution that was approved by a "yes" vote on this question:

“	WHEREAS, it is one of our most cherished values that there is dignity in work, and that everyone in Wisconsin should have the opportunity to work their way into the middle class, not fall out of it; and WHEREAS, we are not short of work ethic in Wisconsin, we are short of good jobs that enable working families to begin to work their way up; and WHEREAS, Wisconsin workers are working harder and harder for less and less, every year the minimum wage stays the same workers take a pay cut, and wages are now so low that millions of full time workers are below the poverty line and qualify for food stamps; and WHEREAS, if people don't earn enough money to pay for the basics, like food, rent, and transportation, the economy stalls, weakening our communities and damaging local businesses; and WHEREAS, powerful corporations actively use their influence to hold down wages and benefits, creating economy-busting jobs rather than economy-boosting jobs; and WHEREAS, nearly 9 in 10 Wisconsin workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase are 20 years of age or older, nearly two-thirds are women, and 234,000 Wisconsin children would see their families' income increase; and WHEREAS, our government's role is to maintain a wage and benefit floor to guarantee all work is valued, and that no Wisconsin worker is denied an honest day's pay for an honest day's work; and WHEREAS, the great American middle class is not something that just happened, we built it brick by brick, and WHEREAS, a $10.10 minimum wage would bring our wage floor to roughly the same level as it was in the late 1960s, adjusted for inflation; and WHEREAS, the most important thing we can do to generate shared prosperity and build an economy that works for everyone, not just the powerful, is to create more economy-boosting jobs; and WHEREAS, a $10.10 minimum wage would raise wages for 587,000 Wisconsin workers by $816 million, and generate over $500 million in additional economic activity in Wisconsin in the next three years, resulting in nearly 4,000 new jobs; and WHEREAS, it's time Wisconsin worked again for people who work for a living; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that an advisory referendum be placed upon the November 4, 2014 ballot to advise the State of Wisconsin as to the level of support within the Kenosha County population for an increase in the minimum wage; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that said advisory referendum read as follows: Should the State of Wisconsin increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour? BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Corporation Counsel's Office shall fulfill its statutory obligations with respect to drafting an explanation of the above referendum question and that the Clerk be directed to place said question and explanation on the November 4, 2014 ballot.	”
—Supervisor Michael Goebel

Support

Raise Wisconsin logo

Kenosha County Supervisor Michael Goebel introduced and authored the resolution calling for the advisory referendum.

Raise Wisconsin was the main group orchestrating the many local efforts to request the state to raise the minimum wage.

Wisconsin Jobs Now also supported the effort to pressure the state legislature to raise the minimum wage.

United Wisconsin also backed the effort.

Arguments in favor

Supervisor Goebel said, “The living wage right now in Wisconsin is about $12.25 an hour. I put the $10.10 in their [sic] for a number of reasons, because I don’t want the legislature in Madison to pass a fifty cent minimum wage bill, and pat themselves on the back for being heroes."

Jennifer Epps-Addison, Executive Director of Wisconsin Jobs Now, said, “For too long, our communities have needed more economic opportunity and security. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 is a critical first step to transform the low-wage jobs of today into family-supporting jobs that can build a new middle class for Milwaukee’s future.”

Kevin Kane, the Lead Organizer for Citizen Action of Wisconsin, pointed out that Wisconsin, at the time of the referendum, was surrounded by states with a higher minimum wage, but the state's job market, as well as the economy generally, was lagging. Kane said the issue was that there was not enough purchasing power to boost the economy and provide for thriving businesses. The goal of activists seeking a higher minimum wage was to put more money in the hands of Wisconsinites, allowing them to spend more at local businesses. According to the Raise Wisconsin website, increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would inject over $517 million into the Wisconsin economy and would generate 3,800 new jobs to meet the demand from the surge in the economy.

Opposition

Kenosha Supervisor Erin Decker said that the referendum could simply be an effort to sway the fall election against Gov. Scott Walker (R). Decker said, “There is an organized effort to put this on the ballot statewide, mostly in counties that they hope to turn out one side of the aisle to vote, so they vote against the current governor."

Similar measures

Related measures

Other Raise Wisconsin measures:

a City of Neenah $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)
a City of Menasha $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)
a City of Appleton $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)
a Milwaukee County $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)
a Kenosha County $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)
a Eau Claire County $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)
a Dane County $10.10 Per Hour State Minimum Wage Advisory Question (November 2014)

Local

a City of Oakland Minimum Wage Increase Initiative, Measure FF (November 2014)
a City of San Francisco Minimum Wage Increase Referred Measure, Proposition J (November 2014)
d City of Eureka "Fair Wage Act" Minimum Wage Initiative, Measure R (November 2014)
a Raise Wisconsin minimum wage increase advisory referendums
City of San Diego $12 per Hour Minimum Wage Initiative (November 2014)
City of San Diego $13.09 per Hour Minimum Wage Measure (November 2014)
City of Las Cruces Minimum Wage Increase Initiative (November 2014)
Washington D.C. Minimum Wage Initiative (November 2014)
City of Seattle $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage Increase Veto Referendum (November 2014)
City of Seattle $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage Initiative (November 2014)
City of San Francisco Minimum Wage Act of 2014 Initiative (November 2014)
a Philadelphia Minimum Wage Ordinance, Proposition 1 (May 2014)
a City of Chicago $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage Referendum (March 2014)
a SeaTac "Good Jobs Initiative", Proposition 1 (November 2013)
City of Richmond Minimum Wage Increase Ballot Question (November 2014)

Statewide

a Alaska Minimum Wage Increase, Ballot Measure 3 (2014)
a Arkansas Minimum Wage Initiative (2014)
a South Dakota Increased Minimum Wage, Initiated Measure 18 (2014)
California Minimum Wage Supplement for Home Health Workers (2014)
Idaho Minimum Wage Initiative (2014)
Massachusetts Minimum Wage Increase Initiative (2014)
Michigan Minimum Wage Initiative (2014)
Missouri Minimum Wage Initiative (2014)
New Mexico Minimum Wage Amendment (2014)

See also

• Local wages and pay on the ballot
• Kenosha County, Wisconsin ballot measures
• November 4, 2014 ballot measures in Wisconsin

External links

Suggest a link

• Citizen Action Wisconsin website
• Raise Wisconsin website