PROVIDENCE The annual fight over the minimum wage in Rhode Island is on again, as it is in most legislative sessions, but the push appears to be less focused as the wage continues rising annually.
The minimum wage in Rhode Island increased to $13 an hour on Jan. 1, the second of four increases, and is set to rise to $15 an hour in 2025, the result of a bill passed in 2021.
Rhode Island Working Families Party Organization Director Zack Mezera said the scheduled increases passed in 2021 have muted the urgency of the issue. He said his group focuses on housing and child-care this legislative session – although both of those are related to the minimum wage, he said.
The minimum wage is already $15 an hour in neighboring Massachusetts and will be $15 an hour in Connecticut on June 1. Future increases in Connecticut will be linked to the rate of inflation.
"It's a capacity problem, as there are only so many people up there and the [focus] of the public is on housing right now," Mezera said. "I'm glad there are so many different minimum wage bills going in, but after that campaign was won in 2021, I think it's a natural process of feeling out what will stick and catch fire."
For Sen. Leonidas Raptakis, the fight over the minimum wage has been a pet issue since 2007. One of the two related...
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