BOSTON — Proponents of a bill to gradually raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021 spoke at a Statehouse hearing this week about the difficulties of living off the current $11 standard. But they also sympathized with business owners.
Filed by the late state Sen. Ken Donnelly, D-Arlington, and state Rep. Dan Donahue, D-Worcester, the bill is backed by Raise Up Massachusetts and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, coalitions of community organizers, religious groups, labor unions and business owners.
If passed, the bill would raise the minimum wage in increments proportional to the cost of living to reach $15 in 2021.
State Reps. Solomon Goldstein-Rose, D-Amherst, and Peter V. Kocot, D-Northampton, are among the 93 legislators who have signed on to the bill as petitioners. A separate proposal, an initiative petition to put the question before voters in November 2018, is slated to begin the signature collection process.
At a press briefing before the Tuesday hearing before the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, supporters directed some of their statements to business owners, saying, “It’s OK” if they can’t get to $15 right away, and that’s why statewide legislation is key.
“I think it’s absolutely OK,” Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, told the Gazette. “It’s OK to say, ‘I cannot do this on my own.’”
Sklar pointed out that Massachusetts has one of the highest minimum wages in the country and that many business owners already pay most of their employees above the minimum. However, she said that’s difficult to do for all employees in a cost-competitive environment without statewide legislation. “Raising the statewide floor evens the playing field,” Sklar said.
However, opponents say the threat is not from within the state but from competition with places like neighboring New Hampshire, where the minimum wage is $7.25. If companies in neighboring states have lower overhead costs due to a lower minimum wage, opponents of the bill worry that Massachusetts businesses won’t be price competitive.
Chris Carlozzi, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, testified that raising the minimum wage would result in “higher consumer prices for products,” as well as less flexibility for employers and job loss.
But Tyrék D. Lee Sr., executive vice president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, asked the audience during the press briefing to imagine if someone working two minimum wage jobs was paid fairly for just one of them. Then, he said, there would be a second job available for someone else.
Massachusetts’ minimum wage increased to $11 per hour on Jan. 1, the last of three increases required by a 2014 bill. That tied Massachusetts with Washington state for the highest minimum wage in the country.
According to a Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center report, raising the minimum wage would affect some 974,000 people, more than a quarter of the state workforce. In western Massachusetts, between 30 to 40 percent of workers would see their incomes rise, and in Springfield that number goes up to 50 percent.
One thing that may be surprising, according to Andrew Farnitano of Raise Up Massachusetts, is that the minimum wage affects many middle-class families, too. “There are a lot of middle-class families where one wage earner is earning less than $15 per hour,” Farnitano said. “There are a lot of couples where their total family income might be $70,000 to $90,000, but that’s because one person is working at a job that pays $50,000 or $60,000 a year. So we actually see a big boost for middle-income families as well.”
Charlemont resident and Zoar Outdoor co-owner Bruce Lessels expressed his support in a statement to Business for a Fair Minimum Wage: “In our line of work, teamwork is everything. If employees feel valued, they will provide the best service we can offer our customers. The minimum wage should set a fair floor under workers’ pay.”
As Massachusetts lawmakers consider the issue, other states are also moving ahead. New York is scheduled to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2018 and California and the District of Columbia have also passed initiatives to raise the minimum wage incrementally to $15 per hour over the next few years.
“This is a human condition,” Norwood resident Darius Cephas said at the briefing, explaining that he works at a Chipotle restaurant and that he and his wife live with her grandmother and can’t make ends meet.
“I mean I have another job interview after this. … Whether or not legislators raise it, my life doesn’t stop,” he said.
M.J. Tidwell writes for the Gazette from Boston University’s Statehouse Program.