On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Senate voted to increase minimum wage to $11 per hour over the next three years. The measure passed by a wide margin of 32-7. Over that designated period of time, minimum wage will be raised in set increments beginning in July 2014. The legislation now moves over to the state House of Representatives and should it pass, will head to the desk of Governor Deval Patrick who has already expressed his intent on signing it into law.
Currently the minimum hourly pay an employee can earn is $8 per hour in Massachusetts, just above the federal base rate of $7.25. The next bump will be to $9 per hour on July 1, 2014; followed by $10 per hour on July 1, 2015; and finally $11 an hour starting July 1, 2016.
For tipped workers – those like waiters and waitresses who rely heavily on tips to help supplement their income – minimum wage is $2.63. As noted by BlueMassGroup, that hasn’t been altered since 1999 and “since 1968 the inflation adjusted value of the tipped minimum wage has fallen 58 percent,” proving exactly why that needs to be augmented.
The resolution would also directly link minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) specific to the Northeast for the first time, meaning wage increases would parallel the rate of inflation and rise accordingly every year.
According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center 589,000 Bay Staters would see an increase in their pay come 2016 and those in the retail industry would be most affected. In that same respect, the retail industry is the bill’s largest opponent.
The Retail Association of Massachusetts, among other naysayers that include small businesses and those in the food service industry, released a statement in response to the bill saying, “It should be of real concern to our policy makers that small businesses continue to struggle with the high cost of doing business in Massachusetts, and are likely to face double-digit premium increases due to the ACA. Our small businesses are looking for help in reducing costs, not new rules that will make it more expensive to do business.”
According to the Associated Press via Boston.com, an increase in minimum wage for tipped workers like waiters and waitresses “could harm the owners of restaurants that typically operate on narrow profit margins.”
When I was in high school, my minimum wage job paid me $6.75 per hour.
