Joe Bornstein, Adam Lee among 150 business leaders that support minimum wage increase
The Maine Small Business Coalition revealed on Wednesday a list of more than 150 business leaders who support a citizen-led initiative to increase the state’s minimum wage.
The group said the businesses, which represent nearly every Maine county, are backing an effort to put a question on the November 2016 ballot that, if approved, would increase the minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $12 by 2020. The initiative is being led by the Maine People’s Alliance and the Maine AFL-CIO. The groups are hoping to collect more than the required 60,000 signatures by January, and said they’re 25% of the way there.
The initiative calls for raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2017. It would then increase a dollar a year until it reaches $12 in 2020, after which it would increase in relation to the cost of living.
“Raising the minimum wage is a matter of basic fairness for working Mainers, but it would also make a more level playing field for my business,” Elena Metzger, owner of Bangor print and copy shop Northeast Reprographics, said in a statement. “I’m competing against large corporations who are not personally invested in the people or community of Bangor. With a higher minimum wage, these big corporations would have to do the right thing like I already do and provide for their employees.”
Joe Bornstein of the Law Office of Joe Bornstein in Portland, Adam Lee of Lee Auto Malls in Westbrook and Jim Wellehan of Lamey-Wellehan Shoes in Auburn are among the more than 150 business leaders putting their names behind the initiative.
See the full list of businesses and their locations in the chart below:
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