The state legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development is considering several different proposals to raise Maine’s minimum wage. A living wage in Maine is at least $15.00 an hour for a single adult. The current minimum wage is $7.50. That gap explains why so many people can not feed their families.
Below is a suggested letter that you can send to members of the committee. Feel free to customize it as you wish, perhaps mentioning if you are a small business owner, or a low wage earner. Be sure to insert your town, and sign the letter with your name, address, phone and email.
Here are the addresses of all the committee members who use email. Just copy the list and paste into the “To” line of your email.
amy.volk@legislature.maine.gov; andre@andrecushing.com; senjohnpatrick14@gmail.com; Erin.Herbig@legislature.maine.gov; Paul.Gilbert@legislature.maine.gov; Anne-Marie.Mastraccio@legislature.maine.gov; Dillon.Bates@legislature.maine.gov; Ryan.Fecteau@legislature.maine.gov; Lawrence.Lockman@legislature.maine.gov; Sue.Austin@legislature.maine.gov; Joel.Stetkis@legislature.maine.gov; Karl.Ward@legislature.maine.gov
For the “Subject” line: Raise Maine’s Minimum Wage to a Living Wage
Copy and paste your letter into the email, and hit “Send.” Easy! Please CC marcyb@maine.rr.com when you send your emails so we can keep track of our advocacy efforts. The more we reach out, the more attention we’ll get for our cause.
Dear Member of the Labor Committee,
As a (town) resident and voter, as well as a member of the Southern Maine Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), I urge you to consider significantly increasing the minimum wage in Maine to a living wage — $15.00 an hour according to a November report from the Alliance for a Just Society. Increasing the minimum wage to a living wage will allow those who currently work for minimum wage and those looking for work to become self-sufficient and to feed their families without resorting to SNAP benefits or food pantries. It is disgraceful that the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2013 ranked Maine fifth in the proportion of residents reporting very low food security, with more than seven percent of our population unsure of where their next meal is coming from. We can do better by our neighbors.
Here are three myths about raising the federal minimum wage posted by the U.S. Department of Labor, which are applicable to our state, as well.
1. Myth: Raising the minimum wage reduces employment; people will loose their jobs.
False. A review of 64 studies on minimum wage increases found no discernible effect on employment. Additionally, more than 600 economists, seven of them Nobel Prize winners in economics, have signed a letter in support of raising the minimum wage, finding, “the weight of evidence now showing that increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market.”
2. Myth: Only part-time workers and teenagers are paid the minimum wage.
False. The typical minimum wage worker is not a high-school student earning weekend pocket money. Fifty-three percent of all minimum wage earners are full-time workers. In fact, 88 percent of those who would benefit from a federal minimum wage increase are age 20 or older, and 55 percent are women.
3. Myth: Increasing the minimum wage is bad for businesses.
False: Academic research has shown that higher wages sharply reduce employee turnover, which can reduce employment and training costs. A June, 2014, survey found that more than three out of five small business owners support increasing the minimum wage because it would increase consumer purchasing power and help the economy.
Please enact a substantial increase in Maine’s minimum wage.
Sincerely,
Your name
Address
Phone number