Minimum Wage Action in the States is Where It’s At

by Mike Hall, Jul 6, 2006

Congressional Republican leaders say they may stop their dilly-dallying on the minimum wage and “deal with it,” as we told you yesterday. But it’s in the states where activists in the AFL-CIO’s America Needs a Raise Campaign are dealing some winning hands for workers who have been stuck at the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum  since 1997.

Here’s a look at state minimum wage action since our last update, when we told you that 210,000 Arizona voters signed petitions from the Arizona Minimum Wage Coalition to put the issue on the fall ballot.

* On Monday, former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) will lead minimum wage rallies at Electrical Workers union halls in Tucson and Phoenix. Click here for addresses and times.

* The Arizona filing came less than a week after the Montana AFL-CIO and the Raise Montana coalition turned in their petitions for a spot on the ballot.

* In Delaware last week, Gov. Ruth Ann Miner (D) signed a bill to increase the state’s minimum wage from $6.15 an hour to $7.15.

* The Pennsylvania legislature worked out its differences between earlier House and Senate bills and passed legislation last week that will increase the Keystone State’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.15 in two steps over the next year for most minimum wage workers. But it does keep a state Senate provision for employers of 10 or fewer workers that gives them three steps and an extra year to hit the $7.15 level.

Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George said:

Today, we join the list of 21 other states, including our neighboring states of New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia, in restoring the value and dignity of work. Raising the minimum wage is one of the most important steps we can take to reduce poverty and to promote good jobs for working Pennsylvanians, who work hard everyday.

Gov. Ed Rendell (D) is expected to sign the bill this weekend.

In Massachusetts, the House and Senate narrowed the differences between competing bills last week. The House unanimously voted for a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage from $6.75 an hour to $8 an hour over three years. Future increases in the wage would be pegged to the cost of living to protect it against inflation.

The House was expected to consider just a $1-an-hour raise, but as the Massachusetts AFL-CIO reports:

After much advocacy by labor and working family allies, the House increased its original position and agreed to go to $8 per hour. Now it is on to a conference committee where the state Senate’s bill, which would raise the minimum wage by $1.25 over two years to $8, will be negotiated with the House’s three-year incremental increase to $8.

Yesterday in California, the state’s Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) appointed a 12- member panel to determine if the minimum wage should be raised to $7.15 an hour with cost-of-living indexing protection, a move pushed by the California Labor Federation and other worker advocates. The panel includes an equal number of worker and employer representatives.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) opposes indexing and has twice vetoed minimum wage increases passed by the legislature because they called for inflation protection. But like many state and federal lawmakers who fear the issue will drive voters to the polls in November to vote against opponents of wage increases, Schwarzenegger has called for a $1-an-hour increase without indexing.

Indexing is critical to protecting the buying power of the minimum wage. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute shows the buying power of the federal minimum wage has dropped to its lowest level in more than 50 years.

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