Raising the minimum wage. Helping Arizona families with medical debt. Record-breaking signature collection.

• Prop 206, the Minimum Wage and Paid Time Off Act, passed in 2016 to raise the minimum wage from $8.05 to $12.00 and establish a right to paid sick time off from employment.
• Prop 209, the Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act, passed in 2022 to cap medical debt interest rates to no more than 3% and protect Arizonans from losing cars, homes, wages, and savings to unfair medical debt.
• Collecting a record-breaking number of signatures to get the Arizona Abortion Access Act on the ballot. The bill will enshrine the fundamental right to abortion in Arizona’s constitution, saving women’s lives for generations to come.

Prop 206

No one who works 40 hours a week should have to live in poverty and decide between buying groceries, medicine or paying the bills. Proposition 206 raised the wages of over 1.6 million Arizonans, ensuring that more families can meet their basic needs and lead healthier lives. Without Prop 206, Arizona’s minimum wage was expected to increase to $8.15 in 2017. Now, thanks to Prop 206, the minimum wage steadily increased to $12.00 in 2020, and starting in 2021, increased with the cost of living. Today, the minimum wage is $14.35, offering hardworking families the opportunity to put food on the table, care for their children, and build a better future for our state.

Prop 209

More than two-thirds of all bankruptcies are tied to debt from healthcare costs, and 30% of Arizonans have debt in collections — higher than the national average. Prior to Prop 209, medical debt collectors could jack up interest rates to 10% a year, every year, keeping families trapped in an unending debt that increases even as they continue making payments. Debt collectors could take away a family’s home or car and garnish wages, making it harder for Arizona families to get out of debt, and even just to get by.  That’s why we worked to pass Proposition 209, our ballot measure to protect consumers from predatory debt collection. Now, millions of Arizonans have more of their assets protected from debt collectors, and the interest rate on medical debt was capped to no more than 3%.

How We Do It

Take Prop 209. Due to the work of our members, we collected a record-breaking number of signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, and then won overwhelmingly in every county in the state. We knocked on doors, distributed lawn signs, and told everyone we knew: medical debt is serious and it ruins lives. Proposition 209 helps. It’s not hard to understand why so many voters joined us on Election Day. We ended up with a resounding win: 72% to 28%.

That is our approach: Empowering ordinary people to talk to their family, friends, and neighbors about what it will take to improve the health and wellbeing of Arizonans. We put power in the hands of workers, patients, students, retirees, and veterans with the skills and resources it takes to win transformative change.