Biz Groups Protest As Senators Support $11 Minimum Wage
Senate President Therese Murray’s push to give Massachusetts the highest minimum wage in the country drew a hostile rebuke from business leaders on Thursday, while Senate Democrats largely embraced the proposal as long overdue.
Murray said Thursday afternoon after meeting privately with Democrats that she would put a bill before the Senate next Tuesday to raise the state’s minimum wage – currently set at $8 an hour – to $11 an hour by January 2016 and tie future increases to inflation.
Murray said the bill being released by the Senate Ways and Means Committee would be an attempt to restore the minimum wage in Massachusetts to its purchasing power had it kept pace with inflation since 1968. The $11 an hour wage would surpass California’s move earlier this year to raise its minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016.
“This isn’t even for the middle class. The middle class makes more than $11 an hour. This is to give people something to move forward so that they can afford to stay here, particularly in the cities,” Murray said.
After seeing the bill introduced Thursday, senators will have the weekend to consider amendments before a Monday 2 p.m. deadline to file additions or changes before Tuesday’s debate. The bill will also propose to tie future increases in the base wage rate to the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast, and guarantee that Massachusetts will always have a minimum wage at least 50 cents higher than the federal minimum, now set at $7.25 an hour.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, objected to the rushed nature by which the bill emerged unexpectedly from Ways and Means and was put on the agenda for Tuesday, arguing that the impact such legislation will have on the tenuous economic recovery could not be overstated.
Sen. Daniel Wolf, a Cape Cod Democrat who co-chairs the Labor and Workforce Development Committee that has been working on the legislation, said the bill should not come as a surprise five months after the committee held a hearing on minimum wage proposals.
“I wouldn’t say this is premature. I would say it’s overdue,” Wolf said.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who was informed Thursday by Murray of her decision to act on a bill before the winter recess, has previously expressed a desire to couple a minimum wage hike with reforms to the unemployment insurance system to balance the impact on businesses.
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, DeLeo said Rep. Thomas Conroy, the co-chair of the Labor and Workforce Development Committee, would continue to meet with stakeholders: “My ultimate goal is to foster job creation and grow our economy. By crafting a comprehensive and balanced bill through the committee process we can provide individuals with the resources they need while helping local employers. My view is that changes to the minimum wage should be considered in concert with other labor and economic policy items.”
Murray said she made a commitment to DeLeo in their conversation Thursday to address unemployment insurance reform separately early next year.
Business leaders blasted Murray’s decision to pursue a clean minimum wage hike without accompanying unemployment insurance reforms that would offset the cost to small businesses being counted on to grow jobs.
“That’s a 37.5 percent increase the way I do my math. That’s very significant and frankly it’s dangerous. It will obviously hurt teen employment and make it that much more expensive,” said Bill Vernon, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
Vernon met with Conroy Thursday afternoon, hours before the Senate bill emerged to discuss what he described as a more comprehensive bill to be released by the committee in January. “I’m concerned about going around the committee system,” he said.
Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, called Murray’s proposal “shocking and disappointing,” saying it put Massachusetts out of step with every other state in the region.
“Our small businesses are looking for help in reducing costs, not new rules that will make it more expensive to do business. For any increase in the minimum wage to be remotely palatable to small businesses, it must be coupled with a repeal of the time and a half pay on Sunday requirement, the establishment of a teen minimum wage and significant unemployment insurance relief,” Hurst said in a statement.
Asked about business warning they might not be able to hire at a time when the economy needs jobs, Murray said, “I don’t believe it. They’re not going hire someone that they need because in 2016 they’ll have to pay $11? 2016? We’re looking at this as a restoration of the minimum wage.”
Though some Democrats representing border communities said privately they harbored concerns with the bill, it was largely embraced by Democrats, who outnumber Republicans 36 to three. Senate Majority Leader Stan Rosenberg said raising it to $11 an hour won’t secure a “living wage” for many people living in poverty, but will help.
Having proposed legislation to raise the minimum wage for several years now, Sen. Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat, said he was pleased to see movement, and argued that warnings from the business community mimic those made in years past that he said have never come true.
“There’s a growing age gap in this county, certainly here in Massachusetts. This helps adjust the floor here a little. I think it’s fair and just,” he said.
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