JUNEAU -- Alaska's minimum wage will go up by a $1 an hour, to $8.75 an hour, starting Feb. 24.
Voters in November approved a ballot measure that called for an increase on Jan. 1. That would have held true had the ballot measure appeared on the August primary ballot, as originally expected.
But when the last legislative session ran long, it pushed to the November ballot the initiatives that had been scheduled for the primary.
Since the constitution calls for ballot measures to take effect 90 days after the election results are certified, the effective date in this case will be in February.
The state labor department says the next scheduled increase in the minimum wage, to $9.75 an hour, will take effect Jan. 1, 2016.