BANGOR, Maine — City councilors made no comment Monday evening as they voted unanimously to introduce a batch of ordinances and resolutions, including an ordinance that would increase the local minimum wage if approved.
The matter is scheduled for a public hearing before the full council on Wednesday. City officials said they have changed the time of that hearing from 6 to 7 p.m. at City Hall.
If approved, the ordinance proposed by Councilor Joe Baldacci would incrementally increase the local minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.25 per hour in 2016, $9 per hour in 2017 and $9.75 in 2018.
After that, the minimum wage would fluctuate with the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation. The proposal excludes tipped employees as well as workers under the age of 18.
“Wednesday night we should have a good discussion. I think people on both sides will be here, and I think it will be an important discussion,” Baldacci said after the meeting. “It’s a tough issue. I recognize that, but it’s an important issue.”
Maine has not raised its statewide minimum wage since 2009. According to city officials, had the statewide minimum wage been adjusted for inflation over the past 50 years, it would equal $9.15 per hour today.
The proposal comes in the wake of the Portland City Council’s 6-3 vote to raise the minimum wage there to $10.10 per hour in 2016 and $10.68 per hour in 2017, then tying it to inflation beginning in 2018.
With four councilors opposing the ordinance and three in favor, Baldacci needs to convince both remaining undecided votes — Councilors Gibran Graham and Ben Sprague — for his proposal to succeed.
Graham and Sprague both have said they wanted to hear from constituents and other councilors before making a decision.
Sprague said Monday he probably will not attend Wednesday’s meeting because his wife is expecting their second child soon, but he plans to watch the video recording.
Locally, current and former minimum wage earners have praised the effort as a means to provide a livable wage to the city’s lowest-paid workers.
Meanwhile, some small-business owners have criticized it, arguing it will eliminate certain entry-level and part-time jobs and force them to increase livable wages in order to keep wages competitive.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the roughly 378,000 Maine workers who earn an hourly rate, about 3,000 earned the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in 2012 and another 8,000 earned less than that.
Baldacci’s proposal would affect more than just the lowest-paid workers in the city.
According to Todd Gabe, an economics professor at the University of Maine, a minimum wage increase to $8.25 per hour would affect 7 percent of the 67,720 workers in the Bangor metropolitan statistical area, which includes surrounding towns and cities such as Brewer, Hampden, Orono, Old Town and Winterport.
At $9 per hour, 12 percent would be affected, and at $9.75 per hour, 18 percent would be affected, he said.
According to city officials, Bangor has approximately 35,000 workers, roughly 6 percent of the state’s total workforce.
If approved, the wage hike would force the city to spend more on certain part-time seasonal and temporary positions.
According to Assistant City Manager Robert Farrar, between 115 and 135 city employees would be affected by an $8.25 per hour minimum wage, costing the city between $50,000 to $60,000 based on current staff levels and pay rates.
All of the city’s roughly 460 full-time workers make at least $10.67 per hour.
While legislative attempts to raise the state’s minimum wage failed this year, the Maine People’s Alliance, a liberal-leaning policy group, has launched a campaign to force a citizen-initiated referendum that could raise it to $12 per hour by 2020.
Councilor David Nealley was absent from Monday’s meeting.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.