Hearing Set For Today On Minimum Wage Increase
With hundreds of supporters gearing up to rally on today in favor of raising the state’s minimum wage, Senate President Therese Murray said she has not yet settled on an appropriate wage level and House Speaker Robert DeLeo said he’s waiting to hear how it would impact the economy.
Murray plans to testify today before the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development when lawmakers will hear input on proposals to hike the minimum wage for the first time since 2008 when the per-hour rate rose to $8.
“I don’t have a number. I wanted to start this conversation. There are some bills that are going to be heard tomorrow. I intend to go down and testify about having that discussion and listening to what the public input is,” said Murray, who elevated the issue on the Beacon Hill radar screen in April when she called for “a serious conversation about what a living wage is for residents living in the commonwealth.”
The Retailers Association of Massachusetts, representing 3,500 small businesses and 17 percent of Bay State jobs, plans to testify against any adjustment to the minimum wage, noting that Massachusetts already has the seventh highest rate in the country.
“Many Bay State small employers simply cannot afford this increase, and neither can our economy if indeed we are collectively serious in stating that our priority in the commonwealth is to grow jobs,” association president Jon Hurst plans to tell the committee, according to his written testimony.
If the minimum wage is increased, according to Hurst, it must be coupled with the repeal of the “antiquated and discriminatory” requirement that retailers pay employees time and a half to work on Sundays. Hurst said Massachusetts and Rhode Island are the only states with the requirement.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses said it’s against a rate hike, saying raising the minimum wage leads to fewer jobs.
“Increasing the minimum wage is economically unsustainable, detrimental to the very workers whom advocates say they want to help, and damaging to the state’s reputation as a place for business,” said NFIB State Director Bill Vernon.
Vernon said increasing the minimum wage negatively impacts teenagers and entry-level workers, whose unemployment rates have risen since the last increase. He also said most minimum wage earners are teenagers, not usually those with families.
“There could only be a handful, and the best way to help those people is to promote small businesses and encourage job creation so that they can gain experience and move up the ladder,” said Vernon. “This policy would accomplish exactly the opposite.”
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who met on Monday with Murray and Gov. Deval Patrick in the governor’s office for about 30 minutes, said he hasn’t spoken to House members yet about the prospects for raising the minimum wage this session.
“I’d just as soon wait until we have the hearing process. I have not had any discussion with either the membership or the chair of the particular committee that’s having the hearing tomorrow so I’d just as soon see this play itself out. I think we ought to hear, number one, the requests and what affects it may have on the economy of the state and then we’ll decide accordingly,” DeLeo said.
The committee is co-chaired by Rep. Thomas Conroy (D-Wayland) and Sen. Dan Wolf (D-Harwich).
Sen. Marc Pacheco and Rep. Antonio Cabral have filed bills to raise the wage to $11 an hour over three years, and tie future increases to inflation to retain the wage's purchasing power.
Treasurer Steven Grossman on Monday threw his weight behind the effort for a second straight year, endorsing an increase in the state’s $8 per hour minimum wage, but stopping short of recommending a specific rate.
“If Charles Dickens was alive today he would write ‘A Tale of Two Commonwealths’ — one about prosperous, thriving communities filled with low unemployment, state of the art schools and modern transportation infrastructure, and another about Gateway Cities suffering from too few jobs and teachers, along with too little hope and dignity,” Grossman wrote to the chairs of the committee. “In government, the most vulnerable citizens are our responsibility. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind.”
Supporters have argued that since the last increase five years ago inflation has eroded the buying power of the minimum wage. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center reports that the value of minimum wage is now equivalent to $7.41 for the 94,000 paid at the minimum level.
Murray has reinforced her calls for a debate on the minimum wage with statistics produced by the Crittenton Women's Union Economic Independent Index showing that a minimum wage worker earns $16,704 annually. That salary falls below the federal poverty line and well below the $28,500 required for someone to be economically independent in Massachusetts, according to the organization.
"When you don't make a living wage, government and businesses pay taxes that fill in that gap," Murray told the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield in April. "So when you say government has grown too large, what you're getting is government is paying for day care, for subsidized day care, for subsidized meals at school, breakfast, lunch and dinners and after-school programs. We're paying for MassHealth and Medicaid. We're paying for transportation. We're paying for subsidized housing. We're paying for fuel assistance in conjunction with the federal government. So you're paying it anyway."
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