Daugaard signs $7.50 youth minimum wage
PIERRE —Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a Republican-backed measure Friday to exempt South Dakota's youngest workers from the $8.50 minimum wage voters approved in November, but vetoed three tax-related proposals that passed with mostly strong support.
Acting on the last bills pending from the 2015 legislative session, Daugaard put his signature on five proposals, including the measure that carves out a $7.50 youth minimum wage. He had carefully weighed that plan, one of the most hotly debated bills of the session, before making his decision.
South Dakota residents voted 55 percent to 45 percent in November to raise the state's minimum hourly wage from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour, which went into effect on Jan. 1. The measure also increased the $2.13 hourly wage that tipped workers earned to half the minimum wage and tied future increases to the cost of living.
The governor had said previously he wouldn't support a "direct attack" on the minimum wage such as a repeal of the inflationary increases attached to it. Opponents of the youth minimum wage proposal argued during legislative debate over the plan that altering the voter-approved measure would go against the wishes of the South Dakota electorate.
But Daugaard told The Associated Press on Friday that the ballot initiative campaign to pass the wage hike focused on adult workers who support a family, not on young workers. The legislative proposal would affect people under 18, and the $7.50 youth wage wouldn't be subject to future cost-of-living increases.
"I don't think it is an affront to the will of the voters," Daugaard said. "Again, I think that campaign focused on adult workers who support a household and not on teenagers."
Republican Sen. David Novstrup, who sponsored the bill, said he's pleased because it will help younger workers get a first job and earn experience in the workplace.
But opponents of the measure argue that young people shouldn't be treated differently than other workers. Ann Tornberg, chairwoman of the South Dakota Democratic Party, said that hourly employees under the age of 18 "deserve the same wage for the same job" as their majority-aged counterparts.
"I absolutely think it's an affront to the voters, and it's egotistical for any of those who supported it to assume they understood the will of the voters," Tornberg said. ""We don't think the voters really intended for this to happen."
Tornberg said minimum wage advocates are discussing their options moving forward.
Tucked into the handful of bill signatures on Friday were three vetoes of minor tax-related bills that moved through the Legislature with relative ease.
Daugaard vetoed a measure that would have exempted the earnings of amateur baseball coaches from the sales tax. He also dismissed a plan to slightly reduce the amount of tax burden on rural electric companies and vetoed a measure to help determine whether South Dakota's property tax burden is a barrier for affordable housing rental businesses.
Lawmakers will return to Pierre to consider whether to override the vetoes at the end of March. The bills' sponsors plan to push their colleagues to supersede the governor's objections.