The Senate’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $12.50 per hour by 2021 received an icy reception Wednesday morning in the House committee tasked with moving it to the floor.
Members of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development said the plan passed in the Senate Tuesday doesn’t help employees or employers.
The present committee members — seven Democrats and two Republicans — appeared to be unanimous in their support of a House version of the bill that would raise the wage to $15 an hour by no earlier than 2026. They did not take any votes on the new bill.
“It gets workers nowhere,” vice chair Rep. Jean O’Sullivan, D-Burlington, said of the Senate’s proposal.
The committee chair, Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Newport, added that the Senate’s steep two-year wage increase would put “great pressure” on businesses and that it was likely the Legislature would come back with another wage increase in the next biennium.
“In 2021, we’ll be having this conversation all over again,” Marcotte said.
The House committee decided to change the Senate’s wage increase plan back to the lower chamber’s proposal and review that amendment later on Wednesday. The Senate Economic Development Committee has already said it will not support that version of the bill.
Earlier this month, the House passed a $15 wage increase that would have been tied to the rate of inflation, or the consumer price index.
The House bill would have raised the wage to $15 an hour no earlier than 2026, but could drag the increase out for years after that if there’s a recession as is widely expected.
On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, said she preferred the House’s wage increase plan over the Senate proposal.
Senators have argued the House measure didn’t raise the pay for low-income workers fast enough. The Senate’s two-year “compromise” would actually raise wages faster than the initial plan to reach $15 by 2024.
Advocates for increasing the minimum wage support the Senate’s plan.
“This gets an adequate raise in people’s pockets in a time frame that allows us to get back and review it and work towards getting a livable wage for the people in this state right now,” said Brenda Siegel, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2018, who has been pushing for a $15 minimum wage in the Statehouse.
The continued debate between the House and Senate over the minimum wage legislation comes as time is running out in the session, with leadership hoping to adjourn by the end of the week.
“It seems really late to be relitigating this,” said House commerce committee member Rep. Charles Kimbell, D-Woodstock.
Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, chair of House General, Housing and Military Affairs, said there was still time to find common ground on minimum wage “before we gavel out.”
Even if both chambers are able to agree on a proposal, it may not win the support of Gov. Phil Scott. On Wednesday, the governor told reporters that he felt the Senate’s $12.50 wage increase is “aggressive.”
