Please don t overlook these ballot measures for fair pay and good goirem m ent -
Raise the
Minimum Wage
No one who works full time should have to live in poverty.
“I work with dozens of single parents who work 40 hours a
week and still have to ask for a box of food because no one
can survive on $13,500 a year. No one who works full
time should have to live in poverty.”
Cassandra Garrison
Oregon Food Bank
THE PROBLEM:
More than 100,000 workers in Oregon earn the minimum wage of $6.5o/hour. For a full-time worker,
that’s less than $i,i5°/month — well below the poverty level for a family of two or more. They’re health
aides, restaurant workers and child care givers. Most are adults 20. or older (73%). Many are women
(60%) and single parents (25%). They haven’t had a raise in almost four ye^s^
THE SOLUTION:
Raise the minimum wage from $6,50 to $6.90 per hour next january and adjust it for inflation every
year thereafter (same as Washington state). This will bring the minimum wage closer to a living wage
and level the playing field for good employers who want to provide fair pay for their workers. It will also
boost our local economy, as these workers spend their pay in our communities.
Restore Integrity to
the Initiative Process
Stop the buying and selling of signatures on initiative petitions
and eliminate the incentive to commit signature fraud.
“When our union sued Bill Sizemore's O.T.U. Education Foundation and
PAC we uncovered reams of forged petitions that were circulated to
qualify his measures for the ballot. His own former staffer testified
that forgeries were common in the paid signature gathering process.”
Debbi Covert
President, AFT-Oregon
THE PROBLEM:
The buying and selling of signatures on initiative petitions has led to widespread fraud and forgery. This
year, hundreds of voters reported that their signatures were forged on initiative petitions. Many others
were tricked into signing petitions for measures that they didn’t support. That’s because “mercenary”
petitioners have taken over the process in Oregon, and all they care about is a quick buck.
THE SOLUTION:
Prohibit paying or receiving bounties or commissions for signatures on initiative petitions. This will
reduce the incentives for forgers to steal your signature and personal information and make sponsors of
initiatives more accountable to the public when they’re collecting signatures. It will end these shady sig
nature gathering practices and restore integrity to our initiative process.