I want you to be aware that there is a bill currently going through the state legislature called HB 2523. It is allegedly designed to encourage youth employment and would allow employers to pay students $7.25/hour if they are between ages 18 and 22. Would it actually increase student employment?
Many employers would be happy to hire students at $7.25/hour over another person at $11/hour. Of course, this would come at the expense of someone else who also needs the money. So basically, some people would lose their jobs to students who would be paid sub-minimum wages.
Having graduated from college last year, I cannot think of any cases in which one of my classmates needed a job and could not find one. Many had jobs, often working for NAU, which already pays many student workers $8 or $9 per hour (being exempt from state and local minimum wage laws).
If the legislature really wants to help college students, they should raise education funding back to what it was years ago so students would not have to work extra jobs to pay the exorbitant tuition costs. Just in case you forgot, the Arizona State Constitution says the public universities must be “nearly as free as possible.”
HB 2523 puts a loophole in the 2016 voter approved minimum wage law. It benefits employers over employees, loosely disguised as a boon to students.
Call or write to your state legislators, and let’s put a stop to this.
WINSTON FREDRICKSON
AZ Daily Sun, February 18, 2019
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