Many workers hail a raise as minimum wage due to kick in
Tens of thousands of Massachusetts' poorest workers will get a pay raise starting today when the state boosts the minimum wage to $8 an hour, one of the highest in the nation.
The 50-cent-an-hour hike propels the Bay State's minimum pay to the highest in the Northeast and the second-highest in the nation, tied with California. The increase marks the second and final stage of a minimum-wage increase that started a year ago when the base pay rose to $7.50 an hour from $6.75.
The current increase will directly affect about 107,000 people in Massachusetts, said Carl Nilsson, campaign director of Neighbor to Neighbor, a statewide organization that advocates for low-income families. Now a full-time worker can expect to earn an additional $1,040 a year on top of last year's increase.
"It's a big bump," said Nilsson, who also chaired the statewide campaign to raise the minimum wage in 2006. "Especially when you consider that there are a lot of households that have a couple of wage earners. In some cases there are households for whom this means another $7,000 a year in increased wages."
Raising the minimum wage in 2006 sparked protests from business leaders across the state that driving up costs would harm businesses and force them to cut jobs. At the time, Mitt Romney, then governor, vetoed the minimum-wage hike and offered a more modest alternative. The Legislature then unanimously passed an override to force it through.
Agustina Matos, a cafeteria worker at Salem State College, said the minimum wage increase helped her buy a 1998 Dodge Caravan, so she no longer has to rise at dawn to catch the bus to work. A few months ago, she and her 10-year-old daughter moved from a studio apartment to a one-bedroom apartment in Lynn.
"I'm not going to say it's five stars, but it's a little better than how it was before," Matos, 39, said with a laugh of her new surroundings.
She sends extra dollars to her ailing 65-year-old mother back home in the Dominican Republic. "It's not enough to save," she said of her higher pay. "It's for survival."
Advocates estimate that another 215,000 workers who earned slightly more than $8 an hour would also be affected by the increase because businesses would feel pressure to raise their wages, too.
Brenda Douyon, a 20-year-old Boston University student from Mattapan, said she hoped the new minimum wage will drive up her pay.
She said she works three jobs - an $8-an-hour job at
Often, Douyon said she rises as early as 5 a.m. to work at the coffee shop and stays up past midnight studying.
She made the dean's list this semester.
"I wouldn't work these many hours if I didn't have to," she said.
Of the 300,000-plus workers who will be affected by the increases, 76 percent are age 20 or older and 60 percent are women, according to a study by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. Almost half work full time.
Other states have increased the minimum wage in recent years. California is tied with Massachusetts, having also raised its minimum wage starting today.
Washington state, which has the highest minimum wage in the nation, will increase the base pay to $8.07 an hour beginning today.
Lew Finfer, director of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network, a federation of faith-based community improvement organizations across the state, said the minimum wage is still lower than what Massachusetts families need to have a decent standard of living.
That's $12 to $14 an hour, he said.
"This is a long way from that but it is still an increase for low-wage workers," he said. 