Kyrsten Sinema's hometown is about to raise the minimum wage to $15 - a measure the Arizona senator voted against

Activists with Our Revolution hold $15 minimum wage signs outside the Capitol complex on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, to call on Congress to pass the $15 federal minimum wage hike proposed as part of the COVID relief bill.

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

• Tucson, Arizona, voters just voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025.
• The results aren't certified yet, but unofficial numbers show that 60% voted for the hike.
• In contrast, the state's senator dramatically voted down a similar measure on the federal level.

Tucson voters just approved a measure to raise the minimum wage to $15 - now it just has to be certified by city officials.

Preliminary results show that about 60% of voters said yes to passing the measure, which sets up gradual increases to the current state minimum wage of $12.15 an hour through 2025. After that, increases will be tied to inflation. Experts have told Insider that gradual increases can help businesses adjust and accommodate new rates of pay, rather than raising the wage all at once.

Tucson also happens to be the birthplace of one of Washington's most powerful senators: Moderate Kyrsten Sinema, who represents the state of Arizona and famously voted against a minimum wage hike that progressive Democrats tried to include in President Joe Biden's first stimulus package. The Raise the Wage Act would've brought the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025; it's been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. Sinema made headlines for voting against the proposal with a dramatic thumbs down.

Sinema later partnered with Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, to work on their own minimum wage proposal. That never came to fruition. Negotiations among Democrats also seem to remain stalled.

U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who said she thinks the issue of minimum wage should be debated separately, gives a "thumbs down" vote on including a federal minimum wage increase to $15 in the COVID-19 relief bill, in Washington, U.S. March 5, 2021 in this still image taken from a video. Picture taken March 5, 2021.

Senate TV/REUTERS TV

C.J. Boyd, campaign manager for the advocacy group behind the push Tucson Fight for 15, told Insider that Sinema's thumbs down vote made their push simpler.

"I think in a way that just fueled our fight more like, okay, we can't rely on our so-called democratic Senator," Boyd said. "We need to just do this ourselves."

A record-breaking number of jurisdictions raised their wages in 2021, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP). This year alone, 74 cities, states, and counties will raise their minimum wage; once the Tucson measure is officially certified, the Arizona city will join the rising number of localities taking the minimum wage into their hands.

"It's really not just one group of folks who are making lower wages," Boyd said, adding: "We're seeing more and more people who can't stay in their homes because they literally can't make enough just to feed themselves and keep a roof over their head on their current wages."

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