Mass. minimum wages to rise to $15 and $6.75 on Sunday
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State Rep. Dan Donahue of Worcester, listening to a speaker in the Statehouse, co-filed a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage by $1 each year over four years until it is $15 an hour in 2021, and then adjust it each year so that it rises along with increases in the cost of living.
The minimum wage for workers in Massachusetts will hit a new high on Sunday, when it rises to $15 an hour and $6.75 per hour for tipped service workers, provided their tips bring them up to at least $15 per hour.
The elimination of Sunday premium pay and holiday pay, which was often referred to time-and-a-half pay, for retail shops on Sundays and holidays will go into effect, as part of the 2018 law that included steady annual increases in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The minimum wage in 2022 was $14.25.
For service workers getting a bump to from $6.15 to $6.75 per hour, there also comes the protection that if the total hourly rate for the employee including tips does not reach at least $15 at the end of the shift, the employer must make up the difference.
The new minimum wage applies to all employees save agricultural workers – who receive $8 per hour – members of a religious order, workers being trained in certain educational, nonprofit, or religious organizations, and outside sales people.
The changes in minimum wage laws in the state are the final step in hikes imposed as part of the 2018 Grand Bargain Law, which has been implemented in phases over five years. The bill included annual incremental raises in minimum wage and a loosening of the Blue Law forcing retail shops to pay time and half to employees working on Sundays and holidays.
“Despite facing record-high inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain disruptions, Massachusetts small businesses will now experience another increase in the state minimum wage to $15 per hour on January 1st, one of the highest base wages in the nation. With economic uncertainty still high and employers continuing to experience economic challenges, it would be prudent for state lawmakers to allow small businesses ample time to adjust before considering any additional wage hikes this legislative session,” Christopher Carlozzi, Massachusetts state director of the trade group National Federation of Independent Business, said in a press release. “The only sigh of relief from small business owners is in reaction to the end of the state’s outlier, and rather antiquated, retailer premium pay laws for Sundays and holidays.”
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center released research in the form of an FAQ in March 2017 – which was updated in January 2018 – regarding the raise of minimum wages to $15. In it the center claimed that the minimum wage increase would impact about 943,000 workers, or 29% of the workforce statewide.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found one adult in Worcester county with no children would need to earn $18.79 an hour to earn a living wage and met their basic needs.
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