Message from ARA President and CEO Steve Chucri

Dear Arizona Restaurant Members,

First, I would like to welcome you to the Arizona Restaurant Association’s (ARA) Prop. 206 Resource Center.  We will be posting the most current information and interpretations about the implementation of the minimum wage and paid sick leave law in Arizona.  We have partnered with Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Steward, P.C. to create this one-stop shop for ensuring your business is compliant with the law.

The ARA has been continually engaged with this issue since it first came to light back in 2015. Starting with the 2016 Legislative Session, the ARA has been fighting to prevent Prop. 206 from making it to the ballot.  These efforts culminated in the summer when a Maricopa Superior Court judge found that a substantial amount of signatures gathered by the Minimum Wage Initiative Committee failed to comply with the law and were invalid, which would have left the initiative short of qualifying for the ballot.  Unfortunately, the Arizona Supreme Court, on a narrow technicality, overturned the lower court ruling and allowed the measure to move forward.  With Prop. 206 allowed to appear on the ballot, the measure was passed by the voters on November 8, 2016.

Prop. 206 contains two major provisions.  The first is the new minimum wage which took effect on January 1, 2017.  The minimum wage is phased in over the next four years, eventually reaching $12 an hour.  The second major provision is the mandatory paid sick leave.  All employers, regardless of size are required to provide a minimum level of paid sick leave to their employees.  However, employers with 15 or more employees are required to allow their employees to accrue and use more hours of paid sick leave than those employers with less than 15 employees.  By utilizing the tools provided to you on this webpage, you can easily identify how much you have to pay, when you have to pay it, and what category of paid sick leave you fall into.

The ARA is committed to providing Arizona restaurants the best information, education, business tools, and advocacy to allow them to focus their core business – food!  With this Prop. 206 Resource Center, we look forward to continuing this important function of the ARA.

Steve Chucri

President & CEO
Arizona Restaurant Association

New Member Benefit
AZ Earned Paid Sick Time Guide

The Arizona Restaurant Association and Ogletree Deakins are pleased to provide ARA members with this informative guide to assist you with paid sick time compliance. This guide provides you with the most up-to-date answers we have on the new paid sick time law.

Please fill out the request form to receive your copy (available to ARA members).

Prop 206 Strategy Panel – March 6, 2017

More to come!