Backers of an initiative to raise Arizona’s minimum wage from $8.05 to $12 an hour turned in nearly 272,000 signatures on Thursday, far more than the 150,000 that have to be verified as valid to get the measure on November’s ballot.
To learn more about the possible effects of a raise on employees, employers and consumers, we spoke with George Hammond, Economic and Business Research Center director at the University of Arizona's Eller College.
Hammond said economic research over last decade shows the negative economic impacts are outweighed by the positives associated with people having more income.