Tech council lays out conditions for $10 minimum wage
The Massachusetts High Technology Council, an industry group behind several efforts to limit taxation and lower business costs, told lawmakers Wednesday it would support a $10 minimum wage with several conditions.
The council said the increase should be paired with a minimum wage for teenagers kept at $8 per hour – the current minimum wage - and significant unemployment insurance reforms. The council’s support of a $10 minimum wage is conditional on the other reform measures being adopted, President Christopher Anderson wrote.
The Senate passed legislation in November increasing the minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2016, and more recently passed unemployment insurance reform that did not include the changes the council is requesting. The House has yet to take up either measure, though Speaker Robert DeLeo has said both are priorities.
President Barack Obama has called for raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, and activists are in the midst of an effort to put a $10.50 minimum wage on the November ballot.
The council said lawmakers should extend the “workforce attachment” from 15 to 20 weeks, and shorten benefits duration from 30 weeks to 26 weeks, ideas that have been rejected by the Legislature over the years.
The Labor and Workforce Development Committee must make a decision on timely filed minimum wage bills by next Wednesday.
But talks about a higher wage floor are taking place at a higher level - House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s office. On Tuesday afternoon, someone named Jordan Lane Gilmore tweeted a photo of a group of mostly men meeting with Speaker DeLeo in his office.
(Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net)
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