Second Johnson County minimum wage increase taking effect

On Sunday, the minimum wage within much of Johnson County will increase from $8.20 to $9.15 an hour - nearly $2 higher than the state and federal rate.

As the county's minimum wage ordinance nears its second of three phased-in increases, cities and employers around the county continue to flesh out their responses. Meanwhile, two other Iowa counties are beginning their own wage discussions.

North Liberty revisited the topic earlier this year and is going along with Johnson County wage ordinance. But the City Council has asked staff to compile data on the impact of an increased minimum on the community.

North Liberty City Administrator Ryan Heiar said further direction is needed from the council, but the information should be ready by October or November, before the next 95-cent increase to the county minimum wage kicks in at the start of 2017.

'They do want to discuss the policy again prior to the Jan. 1 increase,” Heiar said. 'In the meantime, city staff will be collecting data.”

The Tiffin City Council in early April took a final vote to establish its own $9 per hour minimum wage rule. The vote means the city will not be subject to future increases in the county rate.

City councils in Oxford, Shueyville, Solon, and Swisher opted out of the Johnson County ordinance - which means they passed counter ordinances to follow the state and federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Last fall, as the Johnson County minimum wage increased to $8.20 an hour, the University of Iowa, the county's largest employer, made a similar 95-cent increase, which mostly benefited hundreds of student employees.

The UI maintains that the university is a state institution and not subject to the county rule, and that the increase was to remain competitive in the local market.

Student employees average $9.66 an hour, according to information provided by UI media relations manager Anne Bassett.

'University employers will continue to monitor the wage rate necessary to hire and maintain student employees as the market adjusts to the new local wage levels and make adjustments as necessary,” Bassett said in an email.

In Linn County, a recently created minimum wage study group will host its second meeting May 12.

The group of about a dozen elected officials, labor representatives and other Linn County residents has been tasked with exploring the impact of a countywide minimum wage ordinance. The committee is not a policy-making group, but its meetings could result in recommendations to the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

Polk County's Board of Supervisors is following suit. Just last week the five-member board voted to create a minimum wage exploratory task force, which Supervisor Robert Brownell said is roughly modeled after Linn County's committee.

'We really liked that approach of bringing stakeholders to the table,” Brownell said.

Brownell said the task force - which will include three supervisors and 10 county residents - aims to provide the board with a resolution of recommendations by Sept. 1.

'They could recommend nothing, they could recommend a lot, and anything in between,” Brownell said.

One of the first questions Brownell has - a question often raised during these discussions - is the legality of a local wage ordinance.

As for Johnson County, the now 6-month-old ordinance has yet to be challenged in court.

The combined population in Johnson, Linn and Polk counties is nearly 807,000 people, or more than 25 percent of the state's total.