A decision by voters to increase Alaska’s minimum wage could bring a bump in the minimum that must be paid to the state’s school bus drivers.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports a state law passed in 1989 requires school bus drivers to be paid at least twice the minimum wage.
The law does not force employers to increase driver pay mid-way through a contract but could kick in with new contracts.
The state’s minimum wage since 2009 has been $7.75 per hour. That means school bus drivers for five years have had hourly wages of at least $15.50.
Ballot Measure 3, approved in November, will increase the minimum wage by $1 per hour on Feb. 24 and by another dollar to $9.75 per hour on Jan. 1, 2016.
