By Paul Hammel
Nebraska Examiner, July 7, 2022. Also in the North Platte Post, Hastings Tribune, Norfolk Daily News, Doniphan Herald.
LINCOLN — Leaders for an initiative to raise Nebraska’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 said Thursday they had submitted 160,000 signatures to qualify the issue for the November ballot.
About 87,500 signatures of registered voters are needed to put the issue before voters, so 160,000 should be more than enough to qualify. About 10% to 15% of signatures are typically thrown out on petition drives, for various reasons, such as the signers not being registered to vote, election officials have said. ...
Advocates for raising the wage estimated Thursday that about 150,000 Nebraskans would benefit from the increase, or about 20% of the state’s workforce. Nebraska’s minimum wage was last increased when voters approved another ballot initiative in 2014 that ultimately increased the wage to the current $9 an hour. ...
“Fair wages are the single best way to show employees that they are valued,” said Alma Cerretta, the owner of Mana Games and Cafe in Lincoln, at a press conference Thursday. ..