Voters to decide if lowest earning Nebraska workers get a pay raise.

Oct. 21, 2014, 6:30 a.m. ·

Do the state’s lowest paid workers deserve a raise? On Election Day voters will decide whether Initiative 425 should be made the law in Nebraska. It proposes increasing the hourly minimum wage in Nebraska ahead of the level set by the federal government.


It’s Ladies League Night at Sunset Bowl in York, Nebraska, a local institution.

Sunset Bowl, York, Nebraska (Photo by Bill Kelly, NET News)

Amid of the clatter of pins and laughter, Jan Hulbert confidently rolls one ball after another to the benefit of her league team.

She knows the game and these lanes well since her family opened these lanes 50 years ago. Her office is about 20 feet behind her.

This is peak season for Hulbert’s staff. She has up to 17 people on her payroll ranging from a veteran employee at the front desk to a couple of teenaged newcomers working the counter at the Snack Shack. They work for minimum wage, which earns them around $150 per week for their part-time work.

Like a lot of business owners, Hulbert has been calculating what the impact of a minimum wage increase would be on the bottom line at Sunset Lanes.

“It’s not that I am totally against it,” Hulbert said, “but I do have concerns about it.”

If it does pass she says there will be hard choices to make.

“I have to decide if I want to continue to hire entry-level people and raise (the salaries for) all my key people that I have,” Hulbert said.

She adds there is one change that is non-negotiable.

“Obviously, I'm probably going to have to raise my prices.”

That prospect does not bother another small business owner, 50 miles to the east.

Customers at Meadowlark Coffee. (Photo by Bill Kelly, NET News)

Sitting in a booth at Meadowlark Coffee in Lincoln, owner Adam Hintz expects he will ask customers to pay more for their lattes, sandwiches, and other items on the menu. Hintz (see Editor’s Note below) has been vocal in his support of Initiative 425.

“We went through that process of raising the minimum wage before and we are still in business,” Hintz said. “It didn’t hurt us and if anything it helped our co-workers.” He said keeping his staff helps improve service and in turn that helps increase business.

Hintz argues the wage increase is “long overdue.”

The differing outlook of two different small businesses encapsulates the balancing act behind any discussion of increasing entry-level pay for employees.

Higher paychecks versus higher costs.

INITIATIVE 425

Here’s what you will see on the ballot:

Shall the Nebraska statute establishing a minimum wage rate for employees be amended to increase the current state minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $8.00 per hour on January 1, 2015, and to $9.00 per hour on January 1, 2016?

A vote “FOR” will amend the Nebraska statute establishing a minimum wage rate for employees to increase the current state minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $8.00 per hour on January 1, 2015, and to $9.00 per hour on January 1, 2016.

A vote “AGAINST” will not cause the Nebraska statute establishing a minimum wage rate for employees to be amended in such manner.


Download a Sample Ballot

Read the informational pamphlet prepared by the Nebraska Secretary of State.

Nebraska currently follows the lead of federal law, which requires most employers to pay workers at least $7.25 an hour. Congress last increased the minimum wage in 2009. (

Read the background material

prepared by the Nebraska Secretary of State.)

Thirteen states have increased wages beyond the federal mandate and most did so this year. Earlier this year the Nebraska Legislature voted down a state-level wage boost.

Outgoing State Senator Danelle Conrad advocated for the increase and created the group Nebraskans For Better Wages. She says while there have been “modest and incremental increases” in minimum wage since it was adopted 75 years ago, “we are in one of those periods when it hasn’t been addressed for some time.”

Conrad’s group circulated petitions and gathered enough signatures to place the question on the ballot. While other states and cities have mandated even higher minimums, the Nebraska group decided to ask for a smaller increase of 75 cents the first year followed by a dollar-an-hour increase in place by the end of 2016.

“We really looked at a policy perspective about self-sufficiency needs for Nebraska families and that number looked about right,” Conrad said. “It is important to remember that we are not talking about 15 dollars an hour like some other communities are, but this 9 dollars-an-hour over two years is really right-sized for Nebraska.”

The Nebraska Federation of Independent Business polled its 4500 members to ask if the trade association should support or oppose the ballot initiative. Close to 90 percent of those responding opposed a higher minimum wage.

“Small business owners are probably more adversely impacted by increases in the cost of labor,” said NFIB executive director John Hallstrom. “They are less likely to be able to pass those costs along to their customers since they are operating on a smaller or lower margin of profit.”

The research on the impact of the minimum wage adjustments has been used by both supporters and detractors of increases.

A study released in February of this year by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated a nationwide increase in the minimum wage would boost some families out of poverty, even while the higher wages would largely go to those already above the poverty level. The study, based on the proposed federal increase to $10.10 an hour, would add $5 Billion in wages to individuals below the poverty level, “boosting their average family income by about 3 percent and moving about 900,000 people above the poverty threshold” across the United States.

“People who work a full-time job shouldn’t live in poverty,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez in an interview with NET News. “Someone told me recently there is no dignity in a 40 hour work week if you are going to the pantry at the end of the week to feed your family.”

Perez made a series of calls to Nebraska media advocating on behalf of the ballot initiative and to recognize President Obama’s decision to issue an executive order increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 for all contractors doing business with the federal government. Efforts to advance a minimum wage bill in Congress have been unsuccessful.

“Nebraskans deserve a raise as well,” Secretary Perez said. “I am really excited about this ballot initiative because I think it’s a matter of fundamental fairness.”

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman, a Republican, has spoken out strongly in opposition to Initiative 425, saying he is “concerned about the job loss” potential if the measure is successful.

He recently told KNEB Radio in Scottsbluff rather than putting the measure to a public vote, he prefers “the method that we’ve always done in the state of Nebraska. We let the federal government make their decision and then we have business and labor united come together, and we adopted that in the state of Nebraska.”

The 2014 Congressional Budget Office study gave some support to opponents by noting there could be nationwide impacts ranging between “a very slight reduction in employment and a reduction in employment of 1.0 million workers.”

“The adverse impact on the people who lose their job is going to be more personal and outweigh the benefits that are going to accrue to the limited number of people who are going to get that increase,” Hallstrom said on behalf of his business-owning members.

Supporters counter real life examples effectively disprove the Congressional analysis.

“This doom and gloom about job loss just never really comes to fruition. In fact it’s just the opposite,” Conrad of Nebraskans for Better Wages said.

Bonita at Meadowlark Coffee. (Photo by Bill Kelly, NET News)

She cited

a study done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research

released in June of this year. The CEPR economists studied the 13 states which raised the minimum wage at the beginning of 2014 and found those states had “faster employment growth than the states where the minimum wage remained at its 2013 level.”

For the workers and business owners in Nebraska the decision on how to vote on Initiative 425 appears to hinge on personal experience and family circumstance.

Bonita, on duty at Meadowlark Coffee during the afternoon rush, expertly turned coffee beans into a hazelnut latte with a white foam heart decorating the foam in the cup. She recently moved back to Lincoln after living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A city ordinance there requires businesses pay a minimum wage of $10.51 an hour. Bonita said she welcomed the additional money in a notoriously pricey city and felt the community had not suffered economically from requiring the higher pay. (A recent story in the Washington Post revealed the resulting impact was “unclear.”)

Minimum wage worker Kira preps an order at Sunset Bowl. (Photo by Bill Kelly, NET News)

At Sunset Lanes in York, 16-year old Kira paused during the fast-paced food preparation and surprised a visitor by opposing the measure that would increase her pay.

“Honestly I think it just makes the prices everywhere go up because honestly if we are getting paid more that means the prices we charge here go up,” said Kira.

Nationally, public opinion surveys indicate there is broad support for an increase. In November the Gallup Poll found 76 percent of Americans surveyed supported an increase in the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour.


Editor’s Note: Adam Hintz, interviewed for this story as a small business owner, is a candidate for Lower Platte South Natural Resource District 10. His opponent is the incumbent, Karen Amen.