North Dakota Minimum Wage Increase Initiative (2020)

North Dakota Minimum Wage Increase Initiative
Election date November 3, 2020
Topic Minimum wage
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens

The North Dakota Minimum Wage Increase Initiative was not on the ballot in North Dakota as an initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.

Proponents of the measure did not submit signatures before the signature deadline to secure a place on the 2018 ballot. Proponents had until March 14, 2019, to submit signatures to qualify for the November 2020 ballot, but did not submit signatures before that deadline.

This initiative would have incrementally increased the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2021. Following 2021, the minimum wage would have been adjusted according to the cost of living based on the consumer price index.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot and petition title for this initiative would have appeared as follows:

“

This initiated measure would amend section 34-06-22 of the North Dakota Century Code by increasing the state minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $9.83 per hour, effective July 24, 2019; to $12.41 per hour, effective July 24, 2020; to $15.00 per hour, effective January 1, 2021; and, starting July 24, 2021 and annually thereafter, to a wage adjusted by the increase in the cost of living based on the consumer price index.

”

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Support

Arguments

• Scott Nodland, chairperson of the sponsoring committee, said: "Chambers of Commerce or business interests will say there will be less hiring, employees cut and that sort of thing. You’ll hear increasing the minimum wage will mean cutting jobs, but when self-checkouts are introduced we praise them as a good thing, as progress. We don’t condemn it as taking away jobs.”

• Marvin Nelson (D-9), said: "There’s some argument how fast the ramp-up should be. If it is absolutely too fast the Legislature has the ability to slow it down if that’s the basic problem. The basic thing on minimum wage is that it hasn’t kept up at all where it needs to be. It’s really been a fundamental problem, especially in rural areas. It’s really silly if we don’t raise the minimum wage. The state continues to spend money to create more jobs. We don’t have the workers because we don’t pay enough to keep them in the state and then we run programs to try and convince them to come back to North Dakota.”

Supporters of the minimum wage increase initiative argued that when low-wage workers earn more, their reliance on governmental assistance will decrease, therefore the state will spend less money on subsistence programs, including food stamps and energy assistance programs.

Opposition

Arguments

A business owner in Minot, North Dakota said: "The state has to consider the serving industry. Many are already making well, well above minimum wage. An increase in the minimum wage doesn’t do any favors. To cover higher wage costs we have to pass that on to customers, or less people and less hours.”

Background

Minimum wage in other states

Below is a map showing the minimum wage in all 50 states for 2018 and featuring the minimum wage rate in 2017 and information on any increases occurring in 2018. Higher minimum wages are represented by a darker shade of blue. States that are shaded white either have a minimum wage equal to the federal minimum wage or have a lower state-set minimum wage over which the federal minimum wage takes precedence. As of 2018, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. As of December 27, 2017, three other states, Florida, Michigan, and Missouri had proposed initiatives to increase state minimum wages.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in North Dakota

The state process

In North Dakota, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 2 percent of the population of the state. North Dakota is unique in using the population to determine signature requirements for initiatives and referendums. Petitioners may circulate a petition for one year following the secretary of state's initial approval. The signatures must be submitted at least 120 days prior to the election.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the November 2020 ballot:

• Signatures: 13,452 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: Each initiative has its own signature deadline of one year after it was approved for circulation. The final deadline to submit signatures regardless of a petition's approval date was July 6, 2020.

Once the signatures have been gathered, the secretary of state verifies them using a random sample method. Since North Dakota does not have a voter registration system, the secretary of state may use "questionnaires, postcards, telephone calls, personal interviews, or other accepted information-gathering techniques" to verify the selected signatures.

Details about this initiative

• The sponsors of this initiative submitted it to the office of the secretary of state on March 5, 2018.
• The petition was cleared for circulation by the secretary of state on March 14, 2018.
• Scott Nodland, a proponent of the measure said the effort to get the measure on the ballot is lacking volunteers to collect signatures. Nodland said, “It’s the first run, and it’s the first time that people are hearing about the possibility of a $15 minimum wage."
• Proponents of the measure did not submit signatures before the July 9, 2018, signature deadline, therefore the measure did not secure a place on the 2018 ballot.
• Proponents of the measure had until March 14, 2019, to submit signatures to qualify their initiatives for the November 2020 ballot.
• Proponents of the measure did not submit signatures before the March 14, 2019, signature deadline, therefore the measure did not secure a place on the 2020 ballot.

See also

2020 measures

• 2020 ballot measures
• Minimum wage on the ballot
• 2020 petition deadlines

North Dakota

• North Dakota ballot measures
• North Dakota initiative laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls
• Ballot measure signature costs

External links

• Initiative text