By Jim Nintzel
Tucson Sentinel, January 8, 2026
Tucson’s lowest-paid workers started the year with raises. The minimum wage in Arizona rose by 45 cents, from $14.70 to $15.15 an hour. In Tucson, the minimum increased from $15 an hour to $15.45 an hour. Tucson’s minimum is higher than the state’s requirement because in 2021, voters approved the Tucson Minimum Wage Act ...
Pete Turner, who owns the Illegal Pete’s on University Boulevard west of the UA campus, said he’s happy to see the increase.
Turner, who started Illegal Pete’s in Colorado about three decades ago, said he already starts Tucson employees at the current Denver minimum wage of $18.81 an hour before tips. After tips, his average employee here earns about $23 an hour, according to Turner.
He said that for the last decade, he has striven to pay full-time employees a livable wage because he didn’t like the idea of his employees “needing to work two to three jobs to survive and pay your bills.”
“I questioned why couldn't we, as an industry, sustain a living wage so our team could work one job and raise a family,” Turner said. “I am personally passionate about it.”
Hitting the goal of a livable wage has gotten more challenging as the cost of living – and particularly, the cost of housing – has climbed, he said. ...