Massachusetts House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo today proposed incrementally raising state’s minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10.50 an hour by the middle of 2016, setting up a potential showdown with the state Senate, which passed a larger hike late last year.
At a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce event, the powerful Winthrop Democrat outlined his chamber’s plan for incrementally boosting the state’s hourly wage floor: $9 at the beginning of July this year, $10 in 2015, and $10.50 in 2016.
Continue reading below
DeLeo proposed incrementally raising the minimum wage for tipped workers from its current level of $2.63 an hour to $3.75 by 2016.
The speaker also outlined a package of reforms to the state’s uninsurance employment program that he said would lower the tax burden on most employers, shield them from short-term fluctuations in employment trends, and close “loopholes” in the system for certain public sector employees.
Continue reading below
“Given the importance of UI reform and a minimum wage increase, we will update both at the same time,” he said in a speech before people from banks, health insurers, other businesses, and a smattering of state legislators in a function room at The Seaport Hotel. “It is a careful balancing act and one that involves improving conditions for workers at the bottom of our wage scale while creating a climate that permits businesses to create jobs.”
His proposal on minimum wage differs from one passed by the state Senate in November.
The Senate measure would incrementally raise the minimum wage to $11 an hour by the middle of 2016 and connect subsequent hikes to inflation. It would boost the tipped minimum wage to half of the regular minimum wage.
DeLeo said his minimum wage proposal would not tie future increases to inflation.
“They will not be indexed to any economic factors,” he said.
The state Senate passed a separate package of unemployment insurance reforms in February, which will need to be reconciled with any legislation on the issue passed by the House.
At the speech, which was greeted with enthusiastic applause from the audience, DeLeo also called for expanding local convention center and hotel space and said he supported legislation to expand the Boston Convention Exhibition Center.