Supporters of an effort to raise the state's minimum wage turned in signatures with hopes of getting the issue on the August ballot. Vince Beltrami, with the Alaska AFL-CIO, wheeled in five boxes with more than 43,000 signatures to Division of Elections in Anchorage Friday. Just over 30,000 qualified signatures are needed. Unions are supporting the effort. The current minimum wage is $7.75 an hour in Alaska. The proposal would raise that to $8.75 on Jan. 1, 2015, and to $9.75 a year later. The wage would be adjusted annually for inflation annually after that. If the resulting minimum wage is less than a dollar over the federal minimum wage, it would then be set at $1 an hour over the federal minimum wage.
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