Senate plan would raise minimum wage by $1.50 per hour

BOSTON --The state's lowest paid workers could soon be taking home a fatter paycheck.

The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday unanimously backed a plan to raise the state's minimum hourly wage by $1.50 over the next two years. The minimum wage is currently $6.75 an hour.

Under the plan, the wage would increase to $7.50 per hour in September and $8.25 in 2007.

Starting in 2008, future hikes in the minimum wage would be automatically linked to increases in the rate of inflation. The plan also guarantees Massachusetts' minimum wage will always be at least 10 cents higher than the federal minimum.

Supporters of the bill say it could help at least 261,000 low-paid workers. They brushed off concerns that it would cost jobs, saying that most of the jobs lost in Massachusetts in recent years were among higher-paid workers.

Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton said more than 60 percent of those who would benefit from the increase are women and a third are the sole breadwinner for their families.

"For those who say this is just for teenagers, that is not true," he said.

Some lawmakers expressed concerns about Beacon Hill slapping too many mandates and restrictions on businesses.

"We have a very careful balancing act," said Sen. Richard Tisei, R-Wakefield. "This is going to make it more difficult for businesses in the state."

Small business owners have typically opposed past attempts to raise the minimum wage saying it could force them to cut back on the number of workers they hire.

Raising the minimum wage won't just hurt small companies competing with neighboring states or Internet businesses, but would also hurt middle-class families by driving up the cost of living, according to Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

"When you raise the minimum wage you make it more expensive for young families to go out to eat, more expensive for daycare, more expensive for a bag of groceries," he said. "The timing is horrible as we continue to lose middle-income young people because of the high cost of living."

Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, said he sympathized with the plight of small business, but said workers deserve a living wage.

"If you cannot afford to pay a full-time worker the minimum wage we are proposing ... I would suggest that perhaps you're in the wrong business," he said. "We have an expensive state to live in."

Jeff McLynch, deputy director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said the areas of the state with the greatest concentration of low-wage workers will benefit the most. Those areas including western and north-central Massachusetts up through Fitchburg and Leominster; the south coast area including Fall River and New Bedford, and greater Springfield.

Raising the minimum wage should also help workers making slightly more than $8.25 an hour by putting pressure on employers to increase their wages too, he said.

The last time lawmakers voted to boost the state's minimum wage was 1999, when Democrats pushed through a bill increasing the wage from $5 to $6.75 by 2001. At the time it was the highest minimum wage rate in the nation.

The Massachusetts House is expected to debate the minimum wage in June.