Experts Give Insight Into Arizona's Minimum Wage Policies

Published: Thursday, April 16, 2015 - 4:56pm
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(Photo by Sky Schaudt - KJZZ)
Arizona's current minimum wage at $8.05 an hour.

A group in Flagstaff has filed a lawsuit challenging a 2013 Arizona law that banned cities and towns in the state from setting their own minimum wages higher than the state’s. Arizona’s minimum wage was approved by voters in 2006 and currently stands at $8.05 an hour.

Joe Bader is a member of the Flagstaff Living Wage Coalition, which has filed a lawsuit arguing a 2013 state law that stops cities and towns from setting their own minimum wages is illegal.

But Jeffrey Miron, thinks minimum wages in general are a bad idea. Miron is a senior lecturer in economics and the director of undergraduate studies in the Economics Department at Harvard. He’s also the director of Economic Studies at the D.C.-based Cato Institute.

Miron believes minimum wages increase pay for workers who keep their jobs, but generally reduce jobs for low-skilled workers.

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