“His whole platform is wanting to boost the economy,” Melissa Battah says. “One of the major ways to do that is put more money in the pockets of Vermonters.”
Battah is a community organizer with Vermont Interfaith Action, an alliance of nearly 50 religious congregations spearheading a “Raise the Wage” campaign with the help of the nonprofit group Rights & Democracy and more than a dozen Vermont unions and social service organizations.
The campaign launched a website and Vermont Raise the Wage Coalition Facebook page this fall as the first steps to persuade state lawmakers to boost workers’ pay from the current minimum of $9.60 an hour to $15 by 2020.
But reservations voiced by the governor-elect have called the viability of the effort into question. As a state senator from 2001 to 2010, Scott voted to link minimum wage increases to the cost of living.
“I still think this type of approach helps to ensure good, entry-level economic opportunity for all Vermonters while providing a predictable economic climate for businesses looking to grow,” he said this week in a statement to VTDigger.
“We need to be hesitant when it comes to imposing yet another top-down mandate from Montpelier,” Scott continued, “the costs of which are ultimately passed onto consumers in the form of price increases, or onto workers in the form of layoffs or decreased hours.”
Scott would rather invest in workforce training and “address the growing cost of living and doing business here, which will enable businesses to create livable wage jobs with opportunities for advancement.”
State lawmakers approved legislation in 2014 to raise the minimum wage from $8.73 to $9.15 in 2015, then to $9.60 this year, $10 in 2017 and $10.50 in 2018, with subsequent years indexed to inflation.
“Vermont was one of the first to answer President Obama’s call for states to bypass Congress and raise the minimum wage,” Gov. Peter Shumlin’s administration said in a statement at the time. “Vermont has one of the highest minimum wages in America.”
But campaign organizers note that more than 70,000 Vermonters — some 12 percent of the state’s population — are living below the federal poverty level. Advocates are talking with legislators about drafting a higher-wage bill this coming session for implementation by 2020.
“We’re going to move forward, and we’re in it for the long haul,” says Battah, who joined a dozen peers in an informational march in downtown Barre this month. “If it takes a couple of years to convince the Scott administration, we’ll be putting in the work.”
Founded by Burlington clergy and lay leaders in 2004, the statewide religious group boasts nearly 50 member and affiliate congregations representing 10,000 Vermonters as far south as Brattleboro.
“Our mission is to create solutions to systemic issues that prevent our most vulnerable citizens from enjoying the quality of life God intends for us all,” the group states on its website.
VIA made a name for itself over the past year by launching a “Building a Moral Economy” campaign that spurred the Legislature to call for more specific budget projections on the real cost of providing public services, in hopes of stimulating discussion on spending priorities.
The group, viewing the minimum-wage campaign as the next step, began its effort with Rights & Democracy and other allies.
Just this month, small business owners who make up the Main Street Alliance of Vermont joined the campaign.
“With them coming on,” Battah says, “we have a real cross section of Vermonters saying we need decent wages for decent work.”
