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. Thursday, July 7 is the deadline for submitting signatures for the fall ballot.

Roughly 87,500 signatures of registered voters are required to get the issue on the ballot, 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 that nearly 150,000 Nebraskans would benefit from the raise in the minimum wage, or about 20% of the state's workforce.

The last time Nebraska's minimum wage was increased was in 2014 after voters approved another ballot initiative to increase the wage to $9 an hour.

Amid rising costs of housing, food, and fuel, advocates believe that $9 an hour is too low to sustain a household and that raising the wage is "the right thing to do."

Opponents claim that raising the minimum wage would result in job losses and makes companies less competitive with states that don't have higher minimum wages.

For the full article click HERE