The Legislature did the right thing this week in approving a sweeping compromise that gives a boost to workers and addresses concerns of the business community without endangering the state budget.
If the so-called “grand bargain” is signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker — and we urge his quick approval — it would achieve many of the goals sought by sponsors of three questions that had been headed to the Nov. 6 ballot but no longer will need to go before the voters.
Instead, the legislation would raise the state’s minimum wage from $11 to $15 an hour by 2023; grant up to 12 weeks of paid leave for workers to care for a new baby or sick family member, and up to 20 weeks for their own medical care; phase out over five years the requirement that employees receive time-and-a-half for working Sundays and holidays; keep the sales tax at 6.25 percent; and establish a permanent sales tax holiday during August.
“This compromise certainly does not satisfy every desire of everyone, but it is a reflection of the work and commitment to broad consensus that we strive for here in Massachusetts,” said Rep. Paul Brodeur, D-Melrose, the House chairman of the Labor and Workforce Development Committee.
Representatives of the groups backing the ballot questions, while expressing some misgivings, also praised elements of the compromise.
Raise Up Massachusetts, the coalition of labor unions, community groups and religious organizations backing the higher minimum wage and paid family leave, said the bill represents a “victory” for low-wage earners. “However, we are troubled by the size of the increase in the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, which doesn’t go as far as our proposed ballot question. Our coalition is also strongly opposed to the Legislature’s decision to eliminate Sunday time-and-a-half pay and cut wages for thousands of workers who are working on Sundays to pay their bills.”
The Legislature in 2014 approved a three-stage increase in the hourly minimum wage, taking it from $8 to $11. The ballot question sponsored by Raise Up Massachusetts would have raised it to $15 between 2019 and 2022, in annual $1 increments.
An extra year is added to the timetable under the compromise approved by the Legislature, so the minimum wage would reach $15 in 2023. The bill also would raise the minimum cash wage paid to tipped employees from $3.75 an hour to $6.75 by 2023. Massachusetts would join New York and California in paying the nation’s highest minimum wage.
At the same time, the state would phase out one of the last remaining requirements of the so-called “blue laws” — mandatory time-and-a-half pay on Sundays and holidays. Rhode Island is the only other state with that requirement. While employees who now work Sundays would lose some pay, the change also may encourage more businesses to open that day, creating additional hours for workers.
Raise Up Massachusetts supported a ballot question that would have guaranteed up to 16 weeks of paid leave to care for a new baby or a seriously ill or injured family member. The Legislature agreed on 12 weeks of family leave and 20 weeks of personal medical leave, beginning in 2021, with the employee guaranteed the same or equivalent position with no change in pay or benefits.
According to Brodeur, Massachusetts would have the most generous paid family leave in the country. The cost would be split about equally by employers and employees, with a new 0.63 percent payroll tax that would cost, on average, between $4 and $4.50 a week for workers.
Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, which backed a ballot question seeking to reduce the sales tax to 5 percent, said the compromise “mitigates the timing, cost and damage of the $15 minimum wage and the new paid leave program as laid out in the ballot measures.”
Officials feared that the sales tax cut, if approved by voters, would reduce state revenues by about $1.2 billion a year.
A win for retailers is the permanent summer sales tax holiday, which is also popular with consumers but was not approved by the Legislature for the past two years.
We believe the Legislature has crafted a reasonable compromise that balances improved conditions for workers with maintaining an economic environment that allows businesses to remain competitive in Massachusetts, and without adversely affecting the state’s budget.