Senate OKs minimum wage increase
A bill to raise Maine's minimum wage to $9 by 2016 received Senate support Thursday in a party-line vote, the Kennebec Journal reported. Continued support there and in the House will give the bill what it needs to make it to Gov. Paul LePage's desk, but what happens then remains uncertain.
Last week, the House passed the bill — which would raise Maine's minimum wage 50 cents annually from 2014 through 2016 and index it to inflation in following years — and it now needs just procedural votes in both chambers to advance to the governor.
The paper reported LePage's office has not taken an offiical stance on the bill but he is expected to veto it.
The Senate voted 19-16 in favor of the bill, with Independent Sen. Dick Woodbury voting against it. That vote followed on a 86-58 vote in the House.
The paper reported that, in 2011, Department of Labor statistics show that around 20,000 workers in Maine were paid at or below the current state minimum wage of $7.50. Nationally, the minimum wage is set at $7.25.
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