A lower minimum wage for tipped employees would be a thing of the past under a proposed initiative that advocates are hoping to put on the 2024 ballot.

• An organization called Raise the Wage AZ is behind the proposal.
• The driving force behind the campaign is a national coalition called One Fair Wage that's dedicated to ending lower hourly rates for tipped employees, disabled people, incarcerated people and youth.

Details: Tipped employees can currently be paid $3 an hour less than the minimum wage. The One Fair Wage Act would increase the minimum — which is currently $12.80 — by $1 per year in 2025 and 2026, while gradually phasing out the lower wage for tipped workers by 2027.

• Arizona's minimum wage also increases by the cost of living each year.
• Jim Barton, an attorney who represents the campaign, tells Axios that the group is focused on tipped employees because the current system is often unfair to them.
• Employers are supposed to pay workers the minimum wage if their tips aren't enough to offset their lower base pay, but many employers fail to do so, Barton says.

What they're saying: "It's a place where we see sort of people being exploited," Barton says of the sub-minimum wage for tipped employees. "It's an unfair gap in the policy right now that needs to be closed."

Catch up quick: The state's minimum wage is currently set to rise to $13.85 next year, according to the Industrial Commission of Arizona.

• Voters in 2016 approved a ballot measure that gradually...

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