AUGUSTA, Maine - Advocates for raising Maine's minimum wage from $7.50 an hour packed a legislative committee room for most of the day, trying to make a case that it's just not enough to live on. Lawmakers are considering a number of measures aimed at boosting the minimum by as much as a few dollars.
Among those who turned out to testify before the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee was Katie McDaniel of Auburn, who spoke to the challenges of trying to survive on minimum wage.
"I was a single mom, struggling to make ends meet," McDaniel said. "I was making just over minimum wage, about $8 an hour, newly single with a six-year-old, trying to find appropriate housing after my marriage had failed."
McDaniel and others testified about having to patch together a living from two or more part-time jobs. They said they depend on their families for support when it comes to basic necessities, and have also learned how to navigate Maine's welfare system to access benefits.
Rep. Scott Hamann, a South Portland Democrat, says it's been more than five years since Maine last increased its minimum wage, and that more than half of the state's minimum wage workers are women, many of whom are caring for children.
"Fifteen-thousand, six-hundred dollars is below the poverty line for a single mom," said Hamman. "No one who works full-time should have to raise a family living in poverty."
Hamman's bill would raise the state's minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and then index it to the rate of inflation. But that's not as big a boost as the $12-an-hour wage that Maine resident Scott Berry told lawmakers he'd like to see approved. Berry said that while legislators are changing the minimum wage, he'd also like to see members of both parties change their attitudes about the poor.
"I'm really tired of the problem in this country being blamed on people who are struggling to make it through one more day, the vast majority of whom would give anything to be self-sufficient," Berry said.
Rep. Dillon Bates, a Westbrook Democrat, is seeking only a slight increase of 50 cents, to bring the minimum wage to $8.00 an hour, a figure that he said would bring Maine more into line with the 25 states that are paying more than $7.50 an hour. Bates also said that an additional 50 cents would be easier for businesses to absorb.
"Eighty-two percent of our small businesses already pay their employees above the minimum wage," Bates said. "By asking large employers to pay their fair share, we're sheltering Maine employers already doing the right thing. Additionally, the claims that minimum wage hikes are bad for business have been repeatedly disproven. The United States Department of Labor reviewed 64 different studies and found after that review that there was no discernible effect on employment when raising the minimum wage."
But David Clough, of the National Federation of Independent Business, wasn't buying those arguments. "Minimum wage increases have a disproportionate effect on small businesses."
Clough told lawmakers that many of his members employ fewer than five people and that those labor expenses represented a higher percentage of their costs. Shelly Doak, of the Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association, said that while many of her members operate small variety stores, even larger grocers who already pay higher than the minimum wage share concerns about the boost in the rate because of the ripple effect it would have on other wages.
"It sets the floor on every other wage paid," Doak said. "It is for this reason we are not in favor of those proposals."
Lawmakers are slated to review the bills further over the next two weeks.
