Jan. 2—The new year brings a gift to low-wage workers in Maine.
The state's minimum wage jumped from $12.75 to $13.80 an hour on Jan. 1, and in Portland, the minimum increased from $13 to $14 an hour. Minimum wage workers clocking 40 hours a week under the new state minimum will earn an extra $42 weekly, and full-time workers in the city will earn an extra $40 a week.
It is unclear how many workers this will affect — many businesses have already raised hourly wages for many positions to try to compete in a labor market in which staffing shortages have made it difficult to fill many jobs.
But James Myall, an economic policy analyst for the Maine Center for Economic Policy, said the increases are important, even if most Maine workers are already earning well above the mandated state minimum, let alone the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
The state's minimum wage is based on a regional measure of the cost of living. The 8.2% state wage increase and $1 an hour increase in Portland will help minimum wage earners cover housing, heating, food and gasoline costs that rose substantially last year as inflation soared to levels not seen in decades, Myall said.
The locally-owned Sea Dog Brewing Co. was advertising some jobs Friday at the 2022 state minimum of $12.75 an hour, and that increased Sunday. But most of the company's workers were making more than that already, said Emma Downey, manager of the Sea Dog Brewing Co.'s pub on Western Avenue in South Portland. Sea Dog...
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