By Ali Krogman
City leaders and local businesses believe it is too early to tell how the Johnson County minimum-wage ordinance will affect Iowa City.
Last week, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance to raise the county’s minimum wage to $10.10 by Jan. 1, 2017. The county ordinance would go into effect only if a city does not pass its own minimum wage.
“The City Council has had no discussion yet about how to respond to the county’s new ordinance,” Iowa City City Councilor Jim Throgmorton said. “The only official plan is to put it on the agenda of work-session topics.”
City Manager Tom Markus said the council would review the ordinance in October.
“The council will review the legalities of it as well as the merits of it in a public venue,” Markus said. “They haven’t decided at this point.”
The legality of the ordinance is something city leaders have discussed before. The council previously asked City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes to provide her opinion on the likelihood the ordinance could withstand a legal challenge.
“We instructed the attorney to see if the county’s ordinance would be found constitutional according to the Iowa state Constitution,” Throgmorton said. “We think it may end up in court, so we wanted to get her thoughts on how that might go.”
Dilkes is in the process of researching and creating a memo for the City Council. She said she expects it to be completed in a couple of weeks.
“The reason for the legal opinion is whether it’s legal to begin with,” Markus said. “The presumption is that if it isn’t legal to begin with, they wouldn’t be passing an ordinance.”
Labor Commissioner Michael Mauro has previously said an increase would be unconstitutional, but he said there is no way to prevent county supervisors from approving the increase besides a challenge in court. Mauro had not returned calls for comment from The Daily Iowan as of Monday evening.
Veronica Tessler, owner of Yotopia, 132 S. Clinton St., said the effects of the minimum-wage ordinance have yet to be seen for business owners.
“There’s talk it might not actually go through if there are lawsuits,” Tessler said. “From a business perspective, it’s something that all of us small-business owners will have to consider with our pricing so that our business can remain viable.”
As for how the increase might affect the University of Iowa’s employees, spokeswoman Jeneane Beck said approximately 66 percent of students employed through part-time hourly and work-study programs earn less than $10.10 per hour.
The UI has no full-time employees who earn less than this amount; however, there are approximately 200 employees classified as temporary who earn less than $10.10 per hour in the professional and science and merit systems.
Beck said the university does not have a position on the wage proposal and does not know if the university would be affected.
“The issue is we’re a state agency,” she said. “We don’t have an opinion ourselves. We aren’t against it. Legally, we’re just not sure.”
Despite legal concerns, some community leaders believe the minimum wage increase is a positive change.
“I favor it,” Throgmorton said. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Tessler said she thinks it’s fundamentally the right thing to do.
“People working full-time should not have to live in poverty,” she said.
