PORTLAND, Maine — Supporters of a $15 minimum wage for the city used a McDonald's restaurant today to press their case.
A proposal on the city's November ballot would launch a multiyear drive to raise the city's minimum to a level also being planned for Seattle and New York.
"Part of our campaign, that we're having, nationwide, is called the Main Street Campaign," says Cokie Giles, president of the Maine State Nurses Association, who was among those speaking at today's streetside news conference. "And it is good-paying jobs, good, affordable housing, health care for all."
The owner of the St. John Street McDonald's restaurant that served as the backdrop for today's event, George Lydick, told reporters he found the city council's recent minimum wage increase ordinance was more "appropriate."
"Ten dollars, ten cents an hour is an appropriate minimum wage for the city," he says. "It allows workers to make more money. It allows them to cover some of the costs of living in the city, but, at the same time, it allows employers to be able to offer the jobs that we need to be able to offer for the economy to keep going."
Backers of the referendum effort said large franchise operations such as McDonald's were symptomatic of the kind of low-wage employment their ordinance is designed to combat.
The new ordinance will raise Portland's minimum to $10.10 an hour next year, climbing to $10.68 cents an hour in 2017.
