Legislative committee to hear testimony on seven minimum wage bills today
Photo / Maureen Milliken
The Maine Legislature is scheduled to hold work sessions and public hearings on seven bills addressing the state's minimum wage today. The bills include ones halting current increases, ones raising planned increase and different wages for minors or different regions of the state.
The Maine Legislature is scheduled to hold work sessions and public hearings on seven bills addressing the state’s minimum wage today. The bills include ones halting current increases, ones raising planned increase and different wages for minors or different regions of the state.
All seven are before the House Labor and Housing Committee. State Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Kennebec and Rep. Mike Sylvester, D-Portland, are chairs of the committee.
Under current law, the Maine minimum wage is $11 an hour and will go up to $12 an hour on Jan. 1. On Jan. 2021, and every Jan. 1 after that, it must be increased in line with the cost of living.
One bill would raise the wage according to size of employer. LD 670 HP 491, increases the minimum wage of workers for businesses that employ 50 or more people full time to $13 on Jan. 1, 2021; $14 in 2022; and $15 in 2023. Presented by state Rep. Ben Collings, D-Portland.
Lowering the wage
Six out of the seven bills would lower the wage, or slow increases, with many citing the effect of the current law on small businesses.
Scheduled to testify today was a representative of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which issued a news release Monday, that said recent and pending increases in the wage are causing hardship for small businesses and their employees. NFIB represents thousands of small businesses across Maine, and it is calling for a slower phase-in of the next minimum wage increase to $12 in January 2020, so that those companies can better adjust to the steep series of increases.
NFIB’s members have said they have already been forced to raise the cost of services or goods to compensate for the current minimum wage. Beyond higher payroll costs, they experienced higher FICA taxes and workers’ compensation premiums.
Bills that would change the law to lower the minimum age either outright, by age of employee, size of employer or region of the state are:
LD425, HP0334: Sets the state minimum wage at $10 an hour and removes the provision that requires it to increase annually by the increase, if any, in the cost of living. Presented by state Rep. Dustin White, R-Washburn.
LD612, HP440: Establishes a minimum hourly wage for workers under age 16 or 17 years that is $1 an hour less than the regular minimum hourly wage, a minimum hourly wage for those under 15 years of age that is $2 an hour less than the hourly wage and a minimum hourly wage for those 14 years of age and under that is $3 per hour less than the regular minimum hourly wage. Presented by Rep. Dick Bradstreet, R-Vassalboro.
LD808, SP244: Establishes a minimum hourly wage for a person who is under 18 years of age and is enrolled as a student in a school. The wage is 75% of the regular minimum hourly wage. Sen. Jeff Timberlake of Androscoggin.
LD739, HP544: Creates an alternate minimum wage applicable to employees of a small employer, to the first 90 consecutive days of employment for employees who are under 20 years of age and to employees who are under 18 years of age. The wage is $9.75 starting Jan. 1, 2020, and will be increased by any increase in the cost of living starting Jan. 1, 2021, and every subsequent Jan. 1. Presented by Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield.
LD830, HP0604: Establishes a minimum hourly wage for small employers that is less than the minimum hourly wage for large employers. Beginning Oct. 1, for an employer with fewer than 50 full-time employees in Maine, the minimum hourly wage is established at $10; the minimum hourly wage for an employer of at least 50 full-time employees in Maine remains at $11 until Jan. 1, 2021, when it increases to $12. This bill also delays indexing the minimum hourly wage for cost-of-living adjustments by one year, until 2022. Rep. Joel Stetkis, R-Canaan.
'Non-urban' alternative wage
LD1098, SP0330: creates an alternative, lower, minimum hourly wage that applies to almost all of the state except a large part of Cumberland County.,
Starting Jan. 1, 2020, under the bill, the minimum hourly wage rate for those areas would be $11 an hour and increase by 50 cents each Jan. 1 until it reaches $12 an hour on Jan. 1, 2022. The minimum hourly wage would remain what’s allowed in current law for Cumberland County except for the western towns of Baldwin, Bridgton, Harrison and Naples.
The bill also freezes scheduled increase in the current minimum wage or the new alternative minimum wage if there is in effect an extended benefit period for unemployment compensation benefits, as determined by the Commissioner of Labor. The scheduled increase or increases would resume once there is no longer an extended benefit period in effect as of Jan. 1 of a given year. It also delays the cost-of-living adjustment for the current minimum wage to Jan. 1, 2024.
It also changes the calculation to be the average cost-of-living increase over the prior three years and changes the timing of the cost-of-living adjustment to be every three years instead of every year. 18 It also requires the Department of Labor to submit an annual report analyzing job 19 creation and job loss trends in urban and non-urban areas since the initiation of minimum 20 wage increases established by Initiated Bill 2015, chapter 2, section 1. The bill was presented by Sen. Lisa Keim, R-Oxford.
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