[T]he House and the Senate on Wednesday approved two of the Democratic Legislature’s flagship priorities this year: a $15 minimum wage, and a statewide paid family leave program.
But even after both chambers diluted the bills in an effort to build compromise, neither of the Democratic majorities in the House or the Senate were able to secure enough votes to override a veto.
In a 90-53 vote, the Vermont House approved, S.23, a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, at the earliest.
Under the House bill, the minimum wage hike would be rolled out at a slower pace than a proposal backed by the Senate, which sought the increase by 2024.
In the Senate, the paid family leave bill passed 19-10, with four Democrats opposing the legislation.
Both bills are expected to pass with similar numbers in a final vote on Thursday.
Gov. Phil Scott has yet to declare whether he would veto either bill, but struck down previous versions of both proposals last year.
To overcome a veto in the House, Democrats would need to muster 100 votes; in the Senate, they would need 20.
The paid family leave bill, H.107, would establish a program to allow parents to take a total of 12 weeks off to care for newborn children, and workers to take six weeks to care for sick family members.
The $15 minimum wage bill, a priority for Democrats in Vermont for the last three years, is aimed at increasing earnings for low-income Vermonters.
“We’re trying to raise these folks up a little bit,” Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, said on the House floor. “We’re not taking anybody out of poverty with these wages, but we are going to make their lives a little bit easier on a week to week basis.”
The House moved to modify the Senate’s minimum wage proposal earlier this week, after facing mounting concerns from fiscally conservative Democrats that a $15 minimum wage in 2024 could threaten the state’s economy.
To address the concerns of many lawmakers who fear the wage increase by 2024 would harm small businesses, House lawmakers extended the proposed phase-in by tying the minimum wage to the rate of inflation, or the consumer price index.
Under the legislation, the minimum wage would be set each year by multiplying the CPI by a factor of 2.25.
However, the wage could not be increased by more than 5.5% each year, and depending on economic conditions, may not reach $15 until 2027 or 2028.
Like the Senate, many House Democrats had wanted to see a faster minimum wage increase, but agreed on a more moderate bill that could receive broader support in the House — and possibly the support of Scott.
Still, some Democrats and Progressives spoke out against the minimum wage compromise proposal, arguing it did not bring up base pay for workers fast enough.
Seven Democrats and one Progressive, Zachariah Ralph, P-Hartland, opposed the measure on the floor Wednesday.
Robin Chesnut-Tangerman, P-Middletown Springs, proposed an amendment to reinstate the $15 minimum wage by 2024, but it failed Wednesday afternoon.
“I think that the state really needs to make a commitment to bring people up to a living standard, not perpetuate poverty,” Chesnut-Tangerman said in an interview earlier this week.
Before the Senate voted on the paid leave bill Wednesday, senators modified the House legislation to reduce the benefits that would be offered under the program. This brought down the annual cost of the program by more than $40 million. Senators also removed a provision that would have permitted workers to receive paid leave time for personal illness.
Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, who voted against the proposal, said the Legislature is already failing to address the needs of the most vulnerable Vermonters and that the $29 million payroll tax required to pay for paid leave will open up funding gaps for other programs.
“I am simply talking about the fiscal realities of what the impact of taking this much revenue out of the workers of the state, will have on our ability to substantially address very serious areas of need,” she said.
Kitchel’s Republican colleague from Caledonia, Sen. Joe Benning, said he and the Republican caucus were irritated that Gov. Phil Scott’s voluntary paid leave plan had not been seriously looked at and that the Senate was approving a fiscally irresponsible proposal.
In the coming days, the House and the Senate will be negotiating the details of these major policies together.
The House will likely be pushing to reinstate more generous benefits into the paid family leave program, and the Senate will likely pressure the House to agree to a faster roll-out for the $15 minimum wage.
The governor has signaled he would not support a paid family leave program if it was funded through a mandatory payroll tax — as it would be under the Legislature’s current proposal.
He has indicated he could be open to supporting a minimum wage increase with a longer phase-in, but has yet to weigh in on the latest House proposal.
