BANGOR, Maine — More than 150 small businesses are throwing their support behind a plan by the Maine People’s Alliance, a liberal leaning advocacy group, to force a citizen-initiated referendum that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020.
“Our members believe that in the long run, it’s going to be better for their business, that when working Mainers have more money to spend, they spend it locally,” said Will Ikard, director of the Maine Small Business Coalition.
Ikard said the group began contacting its members when the MPA announced earlier this year it was gathering signatures to force the minimum-wage referendum on the November 2016 ballot. He called the response overwhelming, saying it was only the group’s first list of supportive small-business owners.
“They also think it’s just the right thing to do,” he said. “If someone is working 40 hours a week, they should be able to support their families, and you can’t do that in Bangor on $7.50 an hour.”
The coalition plans to release the list during an event to support the proposed minimum wage increase at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at The Briar Patch bookstore in downtown Bangor.
Planned speakers include Jonathan Fulford, owner of Artisan Builders in Rockport; Elena Metzger, owner of Northeast Reprographics in Bangor; Bangor City Councilor Gibran Graham, and Kate Hall, field manager for Mainers for Fair Wages.
If approved, the proposed referendum would increase Maine’s minimum wage, currently at $7.50 per hour, to $9 per hour in 2017 and by an additional dollar per hour each year until 2020. After that, it would fluctuate with the consumer price index, a measure of inflation.
The referendum also proposes increasing the base pay for tipped workers to $5 per hour in 2017 and then increasing incrementally until it is equal to the non-tipped minimum in 2024.
Under current state law, employers can pay tipped workers as little as $3.75 per hour, half the minimum wage. However, if a worker’s tips and base pay do not average the $7.50 minimum wage at the end of the pay period, the employer must make up the difference.
The MPA proposal comes as the Bangor City Council continues discussion of implementing a local minimum wage that would hike pay to $9.75 per hour in 2018.
During a public hearing July 15, Mike Tipping, communications director for the MPA, said they were pursuing the referendum as a last resort after continued inaction at the state and federal levels.
The state has not increased its minimum wage since 2009.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.