A bill to raise the current minimum wage of $6.50 to $6.75 this October and then to $7 in October of 2007 appears to be on its way to final approval after the Senate this week rejected an amendment to add a training wage to the proposal.
The amendment, proposed by Sen. Dana Dow, R-Lincoln County, would have allowed employers to pay 16- and 17-year-olds the current minimum for 90 days while they got experience on the job. After 90 days their salary would go up to the new minimum rate.
Senators rejected the amendment 18-16, with one Democrat – Sen. Scott Cowger of Kennebec County – supporting it.
Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Cumberland County, spoke against the amendment, saying it “created a second class of citizen” and discriminated on the basis of age.
Senior citizens lobbied against it because they said it would lead employers to hire teenage workers instead of them because they could pay teens less.
After the amendment failed, the minimum wage bill was then sent for a final vote in the House, where it last passed 76 to 74.
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.
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