Maine may index minimum wage, By Deborah McDermott, March 1, 2010, Portsmouth Herald: “The Maine Legislature’s Joint Labor Committee is currently debating a bill that would tie the state’s minimum wage to cost-of-living increases – a measure that has strong detractors and passionate supporters. LD 192, introduced by Sanford Democratic Rep. John Tuttle, requires the Department of Labor to calculate the inflation-adjusted miminum hourly wage based on changes in the CPI for the Northeast each Jan. 1, starting this year. Excluded from the calculations would be any month in which the state’s unemployment rate exceeds the national unemployment rate. So far, Maine’s rate hasn’t exceeded the national rate. Maine’s hourly minimum wage is $7.50 an hour, 25 cents an hour higher than the federal minimum. If Tuttle’s bill passes, Maine will be the 11th state that indexes minimum wage. A similar effort in New Hampshire was killed last year, leaving the Granite State’s minimum at $7.25 an hour…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty