House, Senate leaders unsure of next move on minimum wage
After expressing frustration with his committee's inability to complete work on minimum wage legislation in a timely fashion, Sen. Dan Wolf said he doesn't know what the body’s next course of action will be.
The Senate passed an $11-per-hour minimum wage bill in November and an unemployment insurance reform bill in February. On Wednesday, the House passed a $10.50-per-hour minimum wage and unemployment insurance reform legislation, using a different bill, which means the two versions cannot be reconciled unless one chamber decides to take up the legislation again.
"I think there's going to be a discussion at a leadership level now of where we go from here," Wolf said, adding that if the Senate was left to take up the issue again he hoped it would pass (something that looks) similar or identical to what senators approved in November and February.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Brewer deferred to Senate President Therese Murray on the course the chamber will take, and Murray was unavailable for comment, according to an aide. House Speaker Robert DeLeo said, "We both want to get it done…I'm open to any discussions we have to get it done."
On the floor, Wolf expressed frustration with the pace at the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, whose House chairman is Rep. Tom Conroy, D-Wayland.
"We have been asking for six months to report on these bills," Wolf said. "I am a little bit throwing up my hands.”
DeLeo has pointed out that the Senate's minimum wage and unemployment insurance bills did not follow the regular committee process, having been drafted in Senate Ways and Means.
Conroy had previously accused the Senate of obstruction for tying up an extension order that would have allowed the committee to ship out its bills after a March 19 deadline. On Thursday, the Senate extended the committee's reporting deadline to May 1.
"I would love to ask our counterparts in the other chamber why they can't get together with us and move these bills forward," Wolf told his Senate colleagues. He also said, "I have only been here three years, so I am not sure about the protocol about talking about the other chamber."
Sen. Marc Pacheco, a sponsor of legislation to raise the minimum wage, said he was disappointed with the House bill and wouldn't mind if the Senate didn't take it up at all. "It wouldn't bother me. From the beginning, there's been a failsafe plan to ensure the voters of the Commonwealth have a chance to weigh in on this issue," he said.
Organizers behind a proposed ballot question to raise the minimum wage to $10.50 per hour with future increases linked to inflation have not ruled out going to the ballot if the Legislature reaches a compromise they find insufficient.
Pacheco said his main objection to the House bill was the decision not to link future increases in the minimum wage to inflation, which is also how lawmakers' salaries are adjusted up or down from year to year.
"There's a lot of workers out there who feel like they have to be in the business of begging, and that's not right. If it's good enough for legislators, it's good enough for the people," he said.
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