Johnson County supervisors take on minimum wage

IOWA CITY - The Johnson County Board of Supervisors is exploring the possibility of bypassing state and federal rates to create a countywide ordinance raising the minimum wage.

However, the legality behind such a move - basically whether the county may legally pass such a local measure - remains undetermined, according to the county attorney.

Supervisors Mike Carberry, Janelle Rettig and Rod Sullivan requested the topic be discussed at a board work session, which will take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Sullivan said the topic of a minimum wage ordinance follows numerous discussions and observations of poverty in Johnson County.

'In trying to figure out what we can do about all this, at one point I think all of us were hoping that the Legislature would raise the minimum wage,” he said. 'But they didn't do that so the question became, ‘Could we do that legally?' '

County Attorney Janet Lyness said Tuesday she couldn't comment on the proposal but said the legality of such an ordinance had not been determined.

While cities like Seattle and San Francisco have passed specific minimum wage ordinances, no local jurisdiction in Iowa has made such a move.

So if it is legal, what would a minimum wage ordinance in Johnson County look like?

Many of those details - including the potential amount of increase - have yet to be determined. But Carberry and Sullivan said their hope would be to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, a number proposed by President Barack Obama in his Raise the Wage push, which called for a federal increase in the hourly minimum wage from its current $7.25 to $10.10.

Carberry said his understanding is, if passed, the increase would be incremental over three years.

While the rule would be countywide, Sullivan said each city council should have authority over whether to adopt it in their jurisdictions.

'My understanding is if the county passed this it would be for the whole county, then if a municipality wants to opt out, they could do that with a vote,” he said.

Jesse Case, with Teamsters Local 238 and president of the Iowa City Federation of Labor, said he would like the minimum wage raised to as much as $15 per hour.

'A minimum-wage increase could stimulate the local economy, by raising the minimum wage, it puts money in the pockets of low income consumers who immediately spend it where they live,” he said.

When Obama proposed the $10.10 rate, the Congressional Budget Office determined last year it would raise the salary of 16.5 million workers nationwide, but also cost a half million jobs.

The agency cautioned the requirement would lead employers to get rid of low-wage earners or hire fewer of them - in essence hurting thousands of people it was intended to help.

At $7.25 per hour, the Iowa minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum wage, with the last increase in 2008 when it rose from $5.15. Recent attempts in the Iowa Legislature to raise it have failed.

'If the state is not going to raise the minimum wage, then if we have the opportunity and it's legal for us to do so ... then that's something we should look at,” Carberry said.

Sen. Tom Courtney, D-Burlington, a proponent of a minimum-wage increase, said he finds Johnson County's discussion a positive step.

'It actually doesn't surprise me that Johnson County, one of the more progressive counties around, is doing it,” he said. 'I wish we could do it at a statewide level.”