Feds, state consider minimum wage hike

AUGUSTA – Amid Democratic-backed efforts in Congress to increase the federal minimum wage, a bill awaiting further action in the Maine Legislature would ratchet the state’s present hourly minimum from $6.35 to $7.

But there appears to be no rush in Augusta to push legislation through this year.

The Baldacci administration is joining the Maine AFL-CIO in asking the Labor Committee to hold the bill for a year. The sponsor, Rep. John Tuttle Jr., D-Sanford, said Thursday that consensus on the committee is building to set the bill aside until 2006.

In Washington, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is trying to get an increase in the federal minimum wage attached to a bill to overhaul the bankruptcy laws. Kennedy wants to lift the hourly minimum from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years.

Raising the federal minimum is a priority for congressional Democrats. In Maine, the Democratic Party platform calls for raising the federal and state minimum wages “above the poverty level” and indexing it to consumer prices.

In Vermont, which raised its hourly minimum to $7 as of Jan. 1, a bill tying future increases to the Consumer Price Index is working its way through the Legislature. New Hampshire’s minimum is $5.15 an hour.

Under Maine’s current law, the state’s minimum will rise to $6.50 an hour on Oct. 1. If Tuttle’s bill passes, it would rise to $6.75 a year after that, then up to $7 an hour in October 2007. A state minimum can’t be lower than the federal standard.

At a recent hearing before the Labor Committee, Tuttle’s bill drew support from the Maine Women’s Lobby.

“The current minimum wage, although improving, simply does not provide adequate earnings to support a family,” said the lobby’s Lauralee Raymond.

But state Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman, a former women’s lobby leader, said the Baldacci administration had no position on the bill and asked that it be held until next session. Democratic Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill last year to raise the state’s minimum, Fortman noted.

On Thursday, Maine AFL-CIO President Edward Gorham explained the labor federation’s reason for wanting to hold the bill: “We always have better luck with this in election years.”

A separate bill awaiting a Labor Committee hearing next Tuesday would require a “livable wage” that takes into account costs of living for state employees and those who work for businesses with which the state has contracts and other ties.