Prop 206, officially known as the Minimum Wage and Time Paid Off Initiative, passed in Arizona on November 8th, 2016. 1,136,736 people voted yes to this prop, opposed to 790,389 who voted no. Arizona’s minimum wage in 2016 was $8.05. It will be raised to $10.00 an hour by 2017, and slowly increasing to $12.00 an hour by 2020. This means that businesses would need to pay each employee $8,200 more a year working a 40-hour week. This allows one hour of paid sick time with every 30 hours worked.

There are pros to passing this law. 206 is aimed to improve the lowest paid workers. Workers are exposed to the opportunity of getting paid sick time. “Let’s be clear – $10 an hour is not going to make anyone rich by any means. It will only help uplift and help families cover the basics,” Maldonado said. The raise in pay should help out single living people especially with children.

The cons of this passed law could be devastation to businesses including the smaller ones.  Small businesses take up the majority of employers in Arizona. They would have to respond by cutting jobs and hours of their workers to preserve their business. This would make it hard for young adults or minimal experience people to get into the work force. “The passing of the proposition would impact a lot of families and a lot of women,” Talley said.