The Senate Tuesday passed a bill 19-16 to raise the minimum wage by 50 cents in two steps over this year and next, increasing the current minimum wage of $6.50 to $6.75 this October and then to $7 in October of 2007.
The vote was largely along party lines except for two crossovers. Sen. Dana Dow, R-Lincoln County, voted in favor of the increase and Sen. Scott Cowger, D-Kennebec County, voted against. Cowger had said before the vote that he wanted a training wage included in the proposal. Several amendments offered on the floor by Republicans, including a training wage, failed.
A series of senators spoke on the bill, which had been tabled since Feb. 9., when the House passed it 76 to 74. The Senate will vote on it for a second time before sending it back to the House for a final vote.
Sen. Philip Bartlett, D-Cumberland County, said raising the wage would have “little to no impact on the vast majority of businesses in the state,” because many already pay above that rate now. He also said it would have little impact on product prices, because most goods sold in stores paying that wage are made out of state or in China.
What it would do is impact women, who come in and out of the job market and end up in minimum-wage jobs, the disabled and people just starting out.
“It’s helping those who have been left behind,” in the economic boom of the 90s and the housing boom of the current decade, he said.
Sen. Richard Nass, R-York, argued the minimum wage was a “failed government policy,” and you only had to look as far as New Hampshire to see that a lower minimum wage and lower taxes stimulate the economy and create more wealth through the free market system.
The federal wage currently is at $5.15 and hasn’t been raised since 1997. Maine is among 17 states and the District of Columbia that have opted to raise their wage above the federal minimum. The wage just went up here to $6.50 in October of 2005 after the last Legislature passed a similar two-step increase, which took it to $6.35 in October of 2004 and to $6.50 last fall.
Sen. Lois Snowe-Mellow, R-Androscoggin, argued against the pay hike, saying, “it is the unions that benefit the most from minimum wage increases,” because union contracts are tied to the minimum wage rate.
She called it “feel good” legislation that could hurt small businesses and ultimately cost the state jobs.
Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Hancock, said the bill is aimed at low-wage earners, but it could help raise all pay.
“We’re talking about those that are making the least,” he said, but if it pushes the scale up the line, “that’s not a bad thing either.”
Sen. William Diamond, D-Cumberland, said the best reason to vote for a wage increase was to recognize the 21,000 people, spread out over the state, who are Maine’s lowest wage earners. A vote to raise the wage says, “we acknowledge that you’re there,” he said.
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