Johnson County supervisors set vote on minimum wage

IOWA CITY - The Johnson County Board of Supervisors is scheduled Thursday to take the first of three votes necessary to pass the state's first countywide minimum wage ordinance.

The proposal would bring the minimum wage in the county up in phases from the current $7.25 to $10.10 an hour by 2017.

Federal and state employers, including the University of Iowa, which employs nearly 23,000 people according to its website, would likely be exempt from the local ordinance, Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said.

Jeneane Beck, a UI spokeswoman, said the university has not offered an opinion on the proposed ordinance. But since faculty and staff are employees of the state, the Attorney General's Office likely will be tapped to determine the appropriate course of action, if the ordinance does pass.

'We don't have a position on the ordinance itself,” Beck said Wednesday. 'We would just seek to clarify how we would approach that ordinance ... but only if that passes would we even do that.”

Official numbers weren't immediately available, but Beck said very few full-time employees at the university would be impacted by the proposal if adopted.

Lyness said that's true of most state or federal employees in the county.

'Our look at the state's pay matrix would indicate that there's probably no employees that work for the University of Iowa or the state that are not already getting the first tier of the minimum wage that the county is looking to pass,” she said. 'We're not talking about too many people.”

According to the university's human resources merit pay plan, a grade 1 employee at the UI made a minimum of $9.13 an hour this July. The maximum pay for a grade 1 position is $16.81 an hour.

'I just don't think it's going to be an issue,” Lyness said.

Officials with other state or federal employers in the county, such as the VA Hospital, Iowa Department of Transportation or U.S. Postal Services, did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment.

Local city governments like Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty would have the option of passing a counter ordinance if they disagree with the county's minimum wage. Such issues have not been formally discussed by local city councils.

Regardless, they could not be able to set a wage threshold below the current $7.25 an hour established by the state and federal governments.

Supervisors are set to meet starting at 9 a.m. in the Johnson County Administration Building, 913 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City.