Massachusetts Minimum Wage Could Go Up This Summer

A bill to raise the minimum wage in Massachusetts passed a key legislative committee vote last month. The only legislator from the Valley listed as a supporter on the bill’s web page is Representative Ellen Story of Amherst. She told the Valley Post on May 8 that the bill is unlikely to become law this year. “Hopefully next year,” she said. But the bill’s author, Senator Marc Pacheco of Taunton (near Cape Cod) told the Valley Post on May 9 that the bill could pass this year. July 31 is the deadline for any bill to become law this year.

“It could happen very quickly,” Pacheco said. In response to Story’s comment, Pacheco said, “It was unlikely that the bill would get out of committee this year, but it did.” He said lobbyists for companies like Wal-Mart are fighting the bill. But if enough Massachusetts residents call or write to their state legislators and ask them to support the bill, it will become law this year, he said. Contact information for Massachusetts state legislators is at www.maLegislature.gov

The Massachusetts minimum wage is $8 an hour. Pacheco’s bill would raise it to $9.50 an hour on July 1, to $10 an hour a year later, and would have it increase automatically with inflation after that.

The Vermont minimum wage is $8.46 an hour; New Hampshire’s is $7.25, the same as the national minimum wage, set by congress. In Washington state, the minimum wage is $9.04. That's the highest in the nation.

The web page for the Massachusetts bill is:

www.maLegislature.gov/Bills/187/Senate/S00951

Comments

figures....

Fuckin Wal-Mart!!! Multibillion dollar company, cheapest, greediest, company in America. So sad. What has this country come to. Minimum wage needs to go up, its impossible to survive on it the way it is. Especially in Massachusetts. The sad thing is i work at Wal-Mart, so i know first hand, how cheap they really are, and it's bad. Thankfully some people woke up and realized. Hurry up Massachusetts, raise minimum wage, for the people that are struggling, but also to stick it to Wal-Mart!!!

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