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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
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Volume 8 No. 2 |
June 2004 |
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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
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Volume 8 No. 2 |
June 2004 |
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Maine to Increase the Minimum Wage
An increase in the minimum wage is coming! By one vote, the Maine Senate finally enacted an increase in the minimum wage from $6.25 to $6.50 in two steps. The Senate vote was divided entirely along party lines.
Now cashiers, fast food workers, dishwashers, housekeepers, retail clerks and everyone else at the bottom of the wage scale will see their hourly wages increase to $6.35 on October 1, 2004 and again to $6.50 on October 1, 2005. This wage level, obviously, is still very low and less than MAIN had hoped for. But it will still be meaningful for minimum wage workers struggling to make ends meet on sub-poverty level wages. Another $40 a month matters a lot when your earnings are that low.
In fact, this increase is likely to help more than those workers who work for minimum wage. Research shows that when the minimum wage is increased, the group of workers earning just above the minimum (by perhaps as much as a dollar) often also benefit with an increase. This is because their employers adjust their wage scales overall to accommodate the increase for lower wage workers.
MAIN thanks Senator Pam Hatch (D. Somerset) and other co-sponsors of this year's minimum wage bill, all legislators who supported it, and Governor Baldacci for his support in signing it into law. Thanks for recognizing the needs and the contributions of Maine's lowest paid workers!
