Fact vs. Fiction
Fiction: Proposition 202 will only raise the state minimum wage.
Fact: While it only takes a sentence to raise the minimum wage, Proposition 202 contains nearly 50 separate provisions or changes to existing law. Proposition 202 creates a new bureaucracy. This agency will have the authority to riffle through business records and copy business information, thus weakening privacy rights. It would also require new recording requirements for personal and business records that will force individuals, such as seniors who hire home care providers, to meet these burdensome standards. It would let outside groups like labor unions or strangers copy your personal financial information. Nothing in the initiative prohibits this information from being misused.
Example: If you are a small business owner…
Under the new wage law's section H and subsequent provisions, a former disgruntled employee decides to file a complaint under the new wage laws several years after leaving your employment. This act forces open all of your private business records and the personal records of your employees for review by the politically appointed Commission established by the new wage law.
Fiction: I am not an hourly worker or employer, so this will not affect me.
Fact: Included within Proposition 202's text are a number of requirements that will burden retirees, salaried workers, and families. For example, a family with a regular babysitter will be required to keep meticulous records of that person's work, almost treating them as if they were an ordinary employee. Senior citizens who rely upon home health care will also be required by law to keep highly detailed records. Employees who are salary workers have to keep detailed lengthy timesheets.
Example: If you are an elderly Arizonan…
In order to avoid being placed in a managed care facility so that you may continue living close to your family, you require regular home care. Under Proposition 202, you could be required, as every business owner will be, to keep mandatory, detailed payroll records on your home care provider. Failure to do so could result in an investigation by the politically appointed state Commission. You could also be subjected to complaints lodged against you as an employer, also resulting in a government inquiry. You would then be forced to relinquish any and all records to the Commission-possibly even your vulnerable Social Security number-for public viewing.
Example: If your family uses a babysitter…
You and your husband go out to enjoy dinner together every Thursday night. You hire your neighbor's daughter to baby-sit while you are out. Under Proposition 202's broad definitions, you could be considered an "employer" of your neighbor's daughter, forcing you to keep meticulous, mandatory payroll records. You and your family also open yourselves up to the possibility of having wage-based complaints filed against you, resulting in an investigation by the state's politically appointed Commission.
Fiction: Under Proposition 202 small businesses would be exempt from the requirements of the provision.
Fact: Under the definition of small business in proposition 202 nearly none of the small businesses in the state would meet the requirements for the exemption. Under the definition any business that does business out of state, be it purchases or sales, they would automatically not meet the definition of small business.
Fiction: Proposition 202 is a reasonable increase in the minimum wage for Arizona.
Fact: Proposition 202 is not a one time increase. It is an annual increase each year based on the rate of inflation in America's biggest cities. Arizona would be the only state in the Southwest to do this. Future increases will cripple small businesses and cause an annual increase in consumer prices.
Fiction: Increasing the minimum wage reduces dependency on taxpayer-funded public services.
Fact: Proposition 202's automatic annual minimum wage increase will force small businesses to continually look for ways to cut costs, which will lead to cuts in employment and benefits, and cause consumer prices to rise; thereby increasing spending on taxpayer-funded services.
Fiction: The supporters of Proposition 202 are working to raise the minimum wage for working Arizonans.
Fact: Proposition 202 would raise the minimum wage for all workers in the state including illegal immigrants and even convicted felons who work in facilities run by private companies. The only group that would be exempt from the proposition would be the state government, which is the largest employer in the state.
Fiction: Increasing the minimum wage will not hurt Arizona’s economy.
Fact: A mandated increase in the minimum wage in Arizona, and subsequent annual mandated increases, will drive costs up for businesses and consumers and force employment down. Arizonans stand to lose annually $54.8 million in income for the lost jobs caused by the minimum wage, as labor cost rise annually by $87.4 million dollars.
Fiction: Arizona minimum wage workers will benefit from the increase in hourly pay.
Fact: If they keep their job. Research from some of America's leading academic institutes found that workers with the least skills or education will face the biggest threat of losing their job. The very people Proposition 202 is supposed to help are the very workers who will lose out if the Proposition 202 wage scam passes. Single parents, low-skilled workers, African Americans and teenagers - those who make up the majority of minimum wage earners whom the wage increase is specifically designed to help-will see their hours cut and a loss of jobs to higher skilled employees.
Read the fine print and learn the dirty secret of Prop 202. Don’t fall for the Prop 202 wage scam.