Sen. Murray Calls For Debate On 'Living Wage'
As the Senate prepares to consider tax increases on Massachusetts residents and businesses to fund transportation, Senate President Therese Murray on Thursday opened the door to the possibility of her support for raising the state's $8 per hour minimum wage.
Murray appeared before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning, delivering a speech to business leaders that touched on familiar themes of transportation financing and her more recent call this session to reform the welfare system to make it easier for recipients to transition off public assistance into the workforce.
The Plymouth Democrat, however, softly approached the topic of a wage increase, referencing a recent Massachusetts Economic Independence Index report that showed a $12,000 a year gap between a minimum wage salary and what is required for a single adult to be "economically independent."
"The growing gap between income and the cost of living is significant in Massachusetts and we need to have a serious conversation about what a living wage is for residents living in the commonwealth," Murray said.
"Let's start that conversation today," she said, before asking audience members rhetorically what they considered to be a living wage.
Five years have elapsed since the minimum wage in Massachusetts last increased in January 2008 to $8 an hour, still one of the highest wage floors in the country. Connecticut and Vermont have higher minimum wages in New England, at $8.25 and $8.60 per hour respectively.
The Legislature has not voted on a minimum wage increase since 2006, when it phased in the escalation over two years and overrode a veto by Gov. Mitt Romney to do so. Sen. Marc Pacheco has filed a bill this session to raise the wage to $11 an hour over three years, and tie future increase to inflation to retain the wage's purchasing power.
Business leaders, however, warn that raising the minimum wage could have a chilling effect on hiring, and Jon Hurst, of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, recently said it would be more appealing for the federal government to address the minimum wage.
Murray noted that both Maine and New York have recently enacted laws to raise their minimum wages to $9 by 2016. By finding a suitable "living wage," Murray said, "We will support our growing economy, give our residents more to spend and this change will serve as a big step forward in helping our residents lead successful and self-sustaining lives in the commonwealth."
Murray cushioned the talk of raising the minimum wage before the business crowd with a call for unemployment insurance reform, both celebrating and bemoaning the fact that lawmakers in recent years have routinely voted to freeze rates that pay jobless benefits to forestall an increase on businesses.
Though reporting that the trust fund is "healthy," Murray said the current unemployment insurance system is "too narrow and not sensitive enough" to employers with either very good or very poor employment records.
"We need to look at ways to ease the burden of our unemployment insurance system on smaller and new businesses," Murray said, suggesting tourism-based businesses that hire many seasonal employees are not properly accounted for either.
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