YORK COUNTY — Many area workers will notice a bit more in their paychecks as the state’s minimum wage increase grew to $10 per hour Jan. 1. That increase is $1 per hour more than the minimum wage from in 2017.

Maine is one of three states in New England and 18 states across the country to have raised the minimum wage earlier this month.

According to nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, 59,000 workers in the state receive minimum wage compensation for their efforts and hiking the minimum wage amounts to an increase for those workers of about $1,349 anually.

Typically affecting workers at the bottom of the income distribution tier, Maine’s minimum wage increase is the second-such hike for those workers in two years.

Voters in 2016 approved rasising the state’s minimum wage from $7.50 per hour to $9 effective Jan. 1, 2017 and to $10 per hour for 2018.

Maine’s minimum wage will continue to go up each year through 2020 when it reaches $12 per hour and after that it will be coordinated with the rate of inflation, providing regular cost-of-living increases for those earning the minimum-wage scale.

Elimination of the subminimum wage for mostly restaurant workers receiving tips also was approved by voters in 2016, but the Maine Legislature repealed that portion of the minimum wage law last summer, reinstating what is known as a tip credit for those workers.   

“This legislation was overwhelmingly supported in both the Maine House and Senate in a bipartisan way, which is rare in our current political environment,” said Steve Hewins, the president and CEO of the Maine Restaurant Association. 

The tip credit allows restaurants to pay their servers at one-half the prevailing minimum wage provided they make up any shortfall in the rare case that an employee’s tips plus wages amount to less than the minimum wage. 

“We want to remind the public that servers are being paid as they always have been,” Hewins said.

Effective Jan. 1, the tip credit continues to be at half the prevailing minimum wage and that scale will remain in place until the minimum wage tops out at $12 per hour in 2020, at which time the tip wage will be $6 per hour.

Reactions to raising the minimum wage in Maine have been mixed.

“A strong minimum wage protects families from poverty and forms the foundation of a fair, thriving economy,” said Maine Center for Economic Policy Analyst Sarah Austin. “Raising the minimum wage doesn’t just provide greater economic security for Maine workers. It boosts Maine’s economy as well. The new year’s increase will provide families with additional means to buy groceries, pay for their children’s health care, and spend at local businesses.” 

In a report issued prior to the 2016 vote, Liam Sigaud, a policy analyst for the Maine Heritage Policy Center disagreed with that assessment.

“It is also important to note that the minimum wage is not and never should be meant to be a living wage,” Sigaud wrote. “It serves as a training wage for new entrants into the workforce whose skills are insufficient to command higher pay. Very few workers earn minimum wage for an extended period of time. Most retail store employees, for instance, get their first raise after approimately four months on the job.”

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at [email protected].