There’s something really offensive about the end run the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are leading to circumvent the work of hundreds of Maine citizens who gathered signatures and the thousands who signed on in support of increasing the minimum wage to $12 by 2020.

In a recent op-ed (“Maine Voices: Too much … too little … only one minimum-wage choice is just right,” March 4), state Sen. Roger Katz chose the polarizing, provocative “far left” as a descriptor for the Maine People’s Alliance, the group that led the signature gathering, rather than the more accurate “progressive” label.

Sen. Katz believes $10 per hour by 2020 will be enough and states that $12 per hour will be the “highest in America.” Some large cities like Seattle are already at $15 per hour and the sky over Puget Sound has not fallen yet.

The concerns over the effects on the business community are understandable, yet the evidence regarding the effects on the economy of a higher minimum wage are very mixed, where they are even available.

A person making $12 per hour, working 40 hours per week and being paid for all 52 weeks, would make just under $25,000, a wholly inadequate amount of money to live on in the year 2016 in Maine. These are still the “working poor,” a phrase that shouldn’t exist.

Sen. Katz says that this situation reminds him of his favorite fairy tale, “Goldilocks.” The real fantasy is in asking people in 2020 to live on $10 per hour. Surely we can all do better than this.

Mary Ann Larson

Portland

Copy the Story Link