Tucson, Sinema’s Birthplace, Just Voted for a $15 Minimum Wage

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• In Tucson, Arizona, voters just voted to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 by 2025.
• The results are not yet certified, but unofficial figures show that 60% voted for the hike.
• In contrast, the state’s senator has dramatically rejected a similar measure at the federal level.

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Tucson voters just approved a move to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 – now all that remains is for city officials to ratify it.

Preliminary results show that around 60% of voters said yes to passing the measure, which will gradually increase the current state minimum wage from $ 12.15 an hour through 2025. Thereafter, the increases will be linked to inflation. Experts have told insiders that incremental increases can help companies adapt and adjust to new wage rates rather than increasing wages all at once.

Tucson is also the birthplace of one of Washington’s most powerful senators: the moderate Kyrsten Sinema, who represents the state of Arizona and who is known to have voted against a minimum wage increase that progressive Democrats were trying to include in President Joe Biden’s first stimulus package. The wage increase bill would have raised the state minimum wage to $ 15 by 2025; it’s stuck at $ 7.25 as of 2009. Sinema hit the headlines for voting against the proposal with a dramatic thumbs down.

Sinema later worked with Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, to work on its own proposal for a minimum wage. That never came to fruition. Negotiations among the Democrats also seem to have stalled.

US Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who said she believes the minimum wage issue should be discussed separately, votes “thumbs down” about including a federal minimum wage increase to $ 15 in the COVID -19 Aid Act in Washington, United States, March 5, 2021 in this still from a video. Image taken March 5, 2021.

Senate TV / REUTERS TV

CJ Boyd, campaign manager for the advocacy group behind the push Tucson Fight for 15, told Insider that Sinema’s thumb-down voice made her push easier.

“I think in a way that only fueled our struggle, okay, we can’t rely on our so-called Democratic Senator,” Boyd said. “We just have to do it ourselves.”

A record-breaking number of jurisdictions increased their wages in 2021, according to a report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP). This year alone, 74 cities, states, and counties will raise their minimum wages; Once the Tucson measure is officially certified, the city of Arizona will join the growing number of places taking the minimum wage into their own hands.

“It’s really not just a group of people who earn lower wages,” Boyd said, adding, “We’re seeing more and more people who can’t stay in their homes because they literally can’t earn enough to be able to take care of themselves feed and keep a roof over their heads on their current wages. “

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