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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
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Volume 10 No. 2 |
June 2006 |
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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
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Volume 10 No. 2 |
June 2006 |
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Maine's Lowest Paid Workers Get a Raise!
On April 13th Governor Baldacci signed a bill increasing Maine's minimum wage to $6.75 an hour October 1, 2006 and $7 on October 1, 2007. This increase will be welcomed by many thousand Maine workers earning the minimum wage whose pay will increase by $1,040 a year - an important help as the costs of gasoline and heating oil skyrocket. In addition, economists predict that workers earning up to a dollar above the minimum wage may also see their wages increase from what they call the "spillover" effect of this increase.
Eighteen states have now raised their minimum wages higher than the federal minimum which remains at $5.15 an hour. All New England states except New Hampshire have a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum. Maine’s legislature voted to increase the minimum wage by a very narrow margin.
Thank you MAIN members who called your legislators, wrote letters to the editor or otherwise lent a hand. You made an important difference in the lives of Maine’s lowest paid workers.
