Among the Democratic and Green party candidates vying for Sen. Susan Collins’ seat in 2020, there is a consensus on the need to raise the federal minimum wage.
Collins has not yet indicated whether she would support a bill introduced this year in the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would more than double the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. In 2014, she voted against a bill that would have lifted the wage floor to $10.10.
Maine’s independent senator, Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, has also not yet weighed in on the minimum wage legislation.
Both of Maine’s members of Congress, Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, voted for the House version of the bill, which passed in July.
Nation could follow Maine’s lead
Sanders’ bill, the “Raise the Wage Act,” would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2024, then peg future increases to median wage growth. Although it is unlikely to face a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate, if it were to pass, it would supersede Maine’s minimum wage law. In 2016, Maine voters decided by ballot initiative to raise the wage $12 an hour by next year, one of the highest rates in the country.
“I think it speaks to a core value and economic need in Maine,” said Betsy Sweet, one of the Democratic challengers in Maine’s 2020 Senate race who said she supported raising the federal wage floor. “There’s not a person who believes that if you work 40 hours a week, you should not be able to put food on the table or a roof over your head. The current minimum wage just doesn’t do that. That’s still a stretch at $15. But I think it’s really, really important.”
“It’s been more than a decade since the last federal minimum wage increase, and raising the wage to $15 an hour would make a real difference for hundreds of thousands of hardworking Mainers,” said Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon (D-Freeport), another of Collins’ challengers. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done here in Maine to raise the wage, and it’s time that happens nationally.”
Gideon supported the 2016 minimum wage referendum, but later voted in the legislature to roll back wage increases for tipped workers that were part of that law. The Senate’s “Raise the Wage Act,” which Gideon said she would vote for, would gradually phase out sub-minimum wages allowed for tipped workers, young workers and workers with disabilities.
Does $15 go far enough?
A $15 minimum wage by 2024 would directly lift the wages of 28.1 million workers nationally, according to a report this year by the Economic Policy Institute. Another 11.6 million workers would indirectly see a benefit, as employers raise wages of workers making more than $15 in order to attract and retain employees.
An across-the-board wage increase for the lowest-paid Americans would disproportionately affect women and people of color, the same report found. Although men make up a larger share of the workforce than women, the majority of workers (57.9 percent) who would be affected by the law change are women. Although Black workers make up 11.8 percent of the workforce, 16.9 percent would be affected nationally.
The minimum wage in 1950, had it grew at the same pace as the U.S. economy’s rate of productivity, would be $22.19 in 2024. And that’s why some federal lawmakers, such as freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), are looking beyond “The Fight for $15.” “By the way, when we started it, it should have been $15,” she said in July. “Now, I think it should be $20.”
Saco lawyer Bre Kidman, another Democrat challenging Collins, made a similar point. “With regard to the ‘Raise The Wage Act,’ I would vote for it, but argue that it does not go far enough. At present, even $15 an hour (on a 40-hour work week) isn’t enough for a modest 2-bedroom apartment in most of the country.” They added, “While some state and local governments have put higher minimums in place, data suggests that we need the Federal government to provide a floor for workers’ rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Lisa Savage, a teacher from Solon who announced earlier this month that she is exploring a run for Senate as a Green Party candidate, said, “I’ve been a teacher in Maine for 25 years. I see the families of the children I work with struggling to survive in this economy, and I see the impact on their children’s readiness for learning. With one in nine U.S. workers in poverty even when working full-time and year-round, and no rise in the federal minimum wage for a decade, while CEO salaries are through the roof, this legislation is long overdue.”
(Photo via Flickr/TRNS)
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