Ileen DaPonte reads instructions before putting her early ballots in a ballot box in the State of Maine room at Portland City Hall on Oct. 7. Residents will be asked in November if they want to change the city’s hazard pay laws. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

A Portland ordinance that requires workers be paid at least 1.5 times the minimum wage during states of emergency could be scaled down this fall if a citizen referendum is approved by voters.

The city’s hazard pay rule was approved by voters in 2020 as part of a broader change to the minimum wage ordinance, but it has frustrated many business owners who say they cannot afford the added costs – especially when the city is not directly affected by the disasters.

The city’s current minimum hourly wage of $15 means workers earn at least $22.50 per hour during a state of emergency.

The measure that will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot would amend the law so that hazard pay goes into effect only when the mayor of Portland declares a state of emergency, not the governor. Supporters say this means the rule will be triggered less often because the city has declared no emergencies in the last two years, while the governor’s office has done so twice.

But the group that fought to get hazard pay on the books says it would hurt workers by not paying them sufficiently for working under hazardous conditions.

The question has spurred more than $60,000 in support from local businesses.

Campaign finance reports filed by Keep it Local Portland, the local political action committee behind the referendum, show that MaineHealth, the city’s largest employer, donated $25,000 to the campaign.

“It is a more equitable application of the current ordinance’s original intent – to provide enhanced compensation to workers who must work during and within the direct impact of an officially declared emergency,” MaineHealth said in a statement.

The Maine Alliance for Economic Growth also donated $25,000, the Retail Associates of Maine donated $5,000 and the Maine Bankers Association donated $5,000.

WHO IS BEHIND THE REFERENDUM 

The ballot question was brought forth by a citizen initiative led by Tamara Gallagher, owner of Growing Tree Childcare.

Gallagher has been vocal about her opposition to the rule, telling the Press Herald last September that she was forced to close her day care after the governor declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Lee. She said the families she serves can’t afford to pay more and she couldn’t afford to front the costs of a higher payroll.

“If there is a true hazard of course nobody should be working. If there were a tornado in Portland that’s one thing, but when there’s flooding in the Midcoast it doesn’t make sense,” Gallagher said in a phone interview Wednesday.

She worries that the costs of hazard pay are prohibitively high for businesses and because nearby municipalities don’t have emergency wage ordinances, businesses may leave the city to avoid it. She hopes that narrowing the scope of the law will make things easier on businesses.

“If it doesn’t pass, I really do fear for the businesses in Portland,” she said.

Quincy Hentzel, CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber supports the referendum because restaurants, child care providers and social service agencies have told the chamber it is difficult to afford the higher minimum wage.

Hentzel said hazard pay sometimes goes into effect even when statewide emergencies don’t impact Portland. She argued that because hazard pay is a municipal ordinance, conditions in Portland should trigger it, not statewide conditions.

“If there isn’t a hazard being posed to employees in Portland, it doesn’t make sense to have to pay the increased wage,” she wrote in an email.

“The unpredictability of the current ordinance, which has caused closures, depriving workers of any pay and limiting critical services that our community depends on,” she wrote in an email.

OPPOSITION 

The Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which was behind the referendum that brought the hazard pay proposal to voters in 2020, opposes the latest effort to repeal most of its provisions. The group has spent about $2,000 fighting the new referendum.

Ethan Strimling, a former mayor and a member of the DSA, said that the new referendum is “an attempt to gut hazard pay.”

He said that because the city almost never declares emergencies, hazard pay would essentially be obsolete.

“Many workers here don’t live in Portland and have to commute from Saco or Brunswick or Fryeburg. People come a long way to work in Portland,” said Strimling. “If flooding is impacting nearby communities, it is impacting Portland workers.”

He said that workers should be paid more if they are working in hazardous conditions.

“These workers are doing those essential services, like delivering groceries, they’re doing the things we need done to keep society running and they should be compensated for that fairly,” he said.

The headline on this story was updated on Oct. 18 to more accurately reflect the proposed changes.