Since 2016, increases to Maine’s minimum wage have contributed to lower child poverty rates, put more money into Mainer’s pockets, and made our economy stronger for everyone. Most lawmakers on Maine’s Labor and Housing Committee voted recently to build on this success by increasing the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour next year.
The proposed increase to $15 per hour in 2024 will raise the earnings of almost 127,000 hourly employees. This will result in $74 million more in wage earnings compared to Maine’s current minimum wage law that was approved by voters in 2016 and includes cost-of-living adjustments. That means tens of thousands of workers with low wages will have an opportunity to not just keep up with rising costs, but to actually get slightly ahead.
Democrats amended a bill, LD 1376, which originally proposed increasing the state’s minimum wage to $24 per hour over 10 years to increase the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2024 and continue indexing it to inflation thereafter. Republicans voted against this proposal and instead voted to weaken Maine’s wage standards and undercut efforts to boost wages at a municipal level. This included votes to end cost-of-living adjustments, override local minimum wage ordinances in Portland and Rockland, and create a substantially lower minimum wage for teen workers.
The impact of the $15 per hour proposal will depend on how much the current minimum wage of $13.80 per hour would increase at the end of this year due...
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