Although it is still not official, it seems much more likely that voters in Arkansas will get the chance to decide on a proposal to increase the state minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2021. Advocates submitted an additional 45,000 signatures to the Secretary of State last Friday. The ballot initiative, which proposes to hike the current minimum wage of $8.50 to $9.25 in 2019, $10 in 2020 and finally to $11 in 2021, needed a total of almost 68,000 certified signatures to be cleared for the November 6 ballot. As of the end of July, proponents had submitted just over 52,000 valid signatures – 16,000 signatures short, but a sufficient number to buy the advocates an additional 30 days to “cure” the petition with the additional signatures. The certification process is ongoing and must be completed by August 29. Business interests in the state have organized to oppose the initiative and could file legal challenges if the signature threshold is met. More to come on this . . .