Word is filtering out from Beacon Hill (shorthand for the Massachusetts State House) that the legislature is poised to send a bill to Governor Deval Patrick that would raise the state's minimum wage to $11 per hour by January 1, 2017. That would be the highest statewide minimum in the nation.
This success is due in large part to the efforts of Raise Up Massachusetts, a statewide coalition of over 150 labor, faith, and community organizations who have been pushing this issue for some time now. But (there's always a but) it comes with a cost. Read on for a brief history of the promise, and the pitfalls, of grassroots activism.
Last year, with action on a minimum wage increase stalling in the Massachusetts legislature, the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition formed with the goal of taking the issue to the people of Massachusetts through a ballot initiative. The coalition also is sponsoring a second initiative question to provide Massachusetts workers with a modicum of guaranteed sick leave to be accrued over time.
Placing an initiative question on the ballot in Massachusetts is a complicated process. The question had to written up in proper legalese in the summer of 2013 to start the process of appearing on the November 2014 ballot. The state Attorney General must certify that it's a permissible ballot question. (Raise Up did fine with this, but a question to repeal the law allowing casinos in Massachusetts was bounced by AG (and current gubernatorial candidate) Martha Coakley on grounds I find specious. That one is before the state's high court now, and it's still not clear if it will appear on the ballot.)
Once certified, the Secretary of State's office approves petition forms. We got those last September. The proponents then have nine weeks to collect signatures from validly registered voters. The number of signatures is equal to 3 percent of the total number of votes cast for governor in the last election. For Raise Up Mass., that meant obtaining nearly 69,000 signatures on each ballot question (minimum wage and earned sick time).
The signatures (each individual petition sheet must be signed by voters in only one town) are submitted to the election officials in each of the Commonwealth's 351 cities and towns to be checked against their voter rolls. Illegible signatures, people not registered at that address, etc., will not be certified. Any untoward marks anywhere on the sheet can void the whole sheet.
Using only volunteers, Raise Up Mass. got all that done and then some. In early December the coalition submitted to the Secretary of State (technically the Secretary of the Commonwealth, but who's counting?) over 140,000 certified signatures for each question - more than double the required amount.
The questions then go to the legislature for consideration. As it happens, the state Senate (prompted by the coalition's success) already had passed, on November 19, a good minimum wage bill:
--An $11 base minimum wage by January 1, 2017
--The minimum wage for tipped workers would be 50% of the regular minimum wage. It's currently only $2.13/hr federally and, since 1999, $2.63/hr in Massachusetts, which is less than a third of the state's minimum wage.
--Both of these wages would be linked to inflation going forward.
This bill was similar to the coalition's ballot initiative, but not identical. The ballot question called for:
--A $10.50 wage by July 1, 2016
--Raising the tipped minimum wage to 60% of the regular minimum wage (rather than the 50% of the Senate bill)
--Indexing both to inflation.
The House posed a bigger problem, even though it's 80% Democratic in theory. House Speaker Robert DeLeo indicated a desire to couple a minimum wage increase with changes to the state's unemployment insurance system that would harm workers (e.g. reducing the number of weeks one could collect benefits while extending the time one must work to be eligible for them in the first place).
The Raise Up coalition determined to fight those changes. Throughout the winter voters were contacted and asked to call their legislators. Many visits to the State House were made. And, even though the Speaker usually gets what he wants from the House, the bad unemployment insurance provisions were shelved.
In early April the House passed a bill that:
--Raised the minimum wage to $10.50
--Only raised the tipped minimum to $3.75 (basically another buck an hour, nowhere near the $6.30 of the ballot question or the $5.50 of the Senate bill)
--Crucially, it didn't link either wage to inflation going forward
--Nor did it establish the tipped wage as a percentage of the regular minimum, meaning the regular minimum wage could be increased in the future without raising the tipped minimum (this has happened here before).
After some procedural dickering, the House and Senate appointed a conference committee to reconcile these two bills. In the meantime, because the precise language of the ballot initiative has not become law, the coalition is able to moved forward with the initiative campaign. That means collecting another 11,485 signatures over five weeks, no repeat signers allowed.
Since May 10, we've been back out there collecting, and the last signatures are due to town election officials by next Wednesday, June 18. If there are enough, the questions qualify for the ballot. We're doing OK, but if you're in Massachusetts and want to help, this weekend is the last one. And many of our dedicated volunteers will be out of commission as delegates to the state Democratic convention this weekend. So contact Raise Up Mass!
On minimum wage, the coalition's been waiting to see if the legislature sends a final bill to the governor and, if so, if it's good enough to justify not going forward with the ballot question. Now the word is that the conference committee has agreed to recommend to the full House and Senate a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $11, but raise the tipped wage only to the $3.75 passed by the House and would not index either to inflation. Assuming this actually is passed and signed by Gov. Patrick, the coalition will make its final decision on whether to proceed with the ballot initiative by the deadline in early July.
Make no mistake: if it goes through, the $11 is a great victory. It's clear much of what's happened in the legislature over the past eight months was spurred on by the coalition's tireless work. But the $3.75 for tipped workers, who are more likely to live in poverty than other workers, is a disappointment. And the failure to index to inflation means the value of the minimum wage will erode over time and we'll have to fight this battle all over again.
One thing is clear: the legislature hasn't moved on earned sick leave at all (though some legislators, notably state Rep. Kay Khan of Newton, have been fighting for it for years). That question is going to the ballot for the people of Massachusetts to decide.
To me, this saga has been both inspiring - a grassroots coalition of mostly volunteers can guide a legislature's hand - and sobering: it's unfortunate that this much effort must be expended just to get an 80%-plus Democratic legislature in one our bluest states to raise the minimum wage back to its real level of 1968 - a time when far fewer adults were trying to support themselves and their children on it.
We have a lot more work to do.