(The Center Square) — The final in a series of phased minimum wage increases linked to four-and-a-half-year legislation will go into effect in the new year as the new minimum in Massachusetts hits the $15 per hour mark Sunday.
Gov. Charlie Baker in 2018 signed into law House Bill 4640, also known as the “grand bargain legislation,” which included a number of provisions – most notably, the phased increase in the state’s minimum wage from what at the time was $11 per hour to the $15 hourly target in 2023.
In each of the past four years, the state’s minimum wage has gone up incrementally, most recently to a rate of $14.25 per hour a year ago.
HB 4640 was passed into law several years before the pandemic became a reality and other ancillary factors – such as inflation – took hold. Small businesses say increasing the minimum wage adds to their costs, which then must be passed on to consumers via price increases.
At the time of the bill signing, Baker, a Republican who will soon take over as president of the NCAA, cited collaboration and compromise for the various provisions included in the legislation.
“The Massachusetts workforce continues to grow with more and more people finding jobs, and our administration is committed to maintaining the commonwealth’s competitive economic environment,” Baker said in a statement at the time of the bill signing.
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