The Portland Green Independent Committee launched a citizens initiative Thursday to raise the city’s minimum wage to at least $15 an hour by 2019.

Green party members submitted an affidavit and the language of the proposed referendum to the Portland city clerk Thursday afternoon. Once the language is certified, the group can begin to collect signatures to force a citywide vote. Petitioners must collect at least 1,500 signatures within 80 days of receiving the petitions.

Maine’s minimum wage of $7.50 an hour is 25 cents higher than the federal minimum. The proposal that the Greens want to put on the ballot would effectively double the state’s minimum for workers in Portland.

The proposal would also require that the city’s minimum wage rise after 2019 based on changes in the Consumer Price Index. Workers with tip-based jobs also would see their minimum wage increase, to $11.25 per hour once the phase-in period ends, according to the proposal.

Mayor Michael Brennan’s proposal to increase the city’s minimum wage remains bogged down in the City Council’s Finance Committee, and proposals to raise the minimum wage statewide are running into strong resistance in the Legislature.

Brennan’s proposal would establish a citywide minimum wage of $9.50 as of Jan. 1, 2016. That wage would increase to $10.10 in 2017 and $10.68 in 2018.

In 2019, increases would be tied to the Consumer Price Index.

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