A couple dozen protesters gathered outside Portland City Hall today to speak out against the city council’s decision to end a hazard pay provision that had temporarily increased the minimum wage.
The rally was organized by the Southern Maine Workers’ Center, and drew about 30 people for a vehicle parade through downtown Portland that ended with speeches outside city hall.
The hazard pay ordinance required Portland employers to pay a temporary minimum wage of $19.50 an hour to employees who had to show up to work in person while the city was under a state of emergency
Sydney Avitia-Jacques, an organizer with the Workers’ Center, said the increased minimum wage gave workers more flexibility.
"Hazard pay for a lot of folks means that you can actually afford to not go into work when you’re sick," Avitia-Jacques said.
But the wage bump was short lived – it went into effect on Jan.1, and ended two weeks later after the city council voted 8-1 to lift the state of emergency.
City councilor Victoria Pelletier was the lone vote against lifting the state of emergency. She said essential workers deserve higher pay – instead of what she called “performative activism."
"We clap for them, we make signs for them, and we thank them for working in the midst of a deadly pandemic," she said at the rally. "But we refuse to pay them."
Pelletier said she will bring a proposal before the council this month to extend hazard pay even if the city is not under a state of emergency.
