The House Appropriations Committee made a big change Monday to a Senate-approved bill that was designed to bring Vermont’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024.
The new version of the legislation would raise the wage by 2.25 times the rate of the consumer price index until it reaches $15; at that point, the annual increases would go up at the same rate as the index.
House Appropriations chair Kitty Toll (D-Danville) told the committee that the alteration means the lowest-earning Vermonters wouldn’t begin earning $15 per hour as soon as previous versions of the legislation.
“So what this does, it pushes [the $15 minimum wage] out to 2026, whereas the bill that was before us had 2024,” she said.
The panel voted 6-5 to approve the change.
The new proposal also has a “pause button,” as lawmakers called it, that would stop the rapid minimum wage increases if the state’s economy goes into a recession. Legislative lawyer Damien Leonard described the feature during Monday’s meeting as a “relief valve.”
The House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee considered a similar proposal last month, but committee members ultimately rejected that plan in order to keep the Senate-approved proposal.
“I think asking [low-income Vermonters] to wait longer than five years is wrong, so I am in full support of the language that is in the Senate bill, and I don’t want those 66,000 people to wait seven or eight years,” Rep. John Killacky (D-South Burlington) said during that committee’s April 26 meeting.
But the Appropriations Committee opted to make the change, slowing the proposed increase and tying the wage directly to the state’s economy instead of prescribing set annual increases.
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) said that he hadn’t yet reviewed the proposal, and he declined to comment on the change until he learned the specifics.
The full 150-member House has not yet voted on the legislation. If a majority approve this new version of the bill, it would return to the Senate for a review of the changes.
Disclosure: Tim Ashe is the domestic partner of Seven Days publisher and coeditor Paula Routly. Find our conflict-of-interest policy here: sevendaysvt.com/disclosure.
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What a dreadful disappointment. Vermont Dems, you can do better than this.
The minimum wage is always zero.
When a business pays the minimum wage, it means that if they could pay less than that, they would. Sorry, working poor! Business wins again.
Dumbest idea ever. The sooner the wage goes to $15, the better for the economy:
1. Putting extra cash into the hands of those who are barely making it means they will spend it all right here, right now. That’s a good way to protect the local economy in times of recession.
2. Businesses won’t reduce hiring. They’re always crying about not having enough workers. They literally can’t operate with fewer workers.
3. If your business plan requires workers at lower wages, you have a bad plan. Get a new one.
4. What if global companies like Walmart and McDonald’s decide to leave the state? All the better for local companies and communities.
5. But that cash comes out of the pockets of wealthier people?
a. They won’t notice.
b. They’ll be spending less taxes on social services.
c. Cry me a river.
Or we could stop withholding tax from people
One again the Vermont working poor serve as a cushion to the business and state employers because it is “difficult” for them to correct a 50 year old sub 1968 minimum wage! Clear the business elite is more important to our legislators that hard working Vermonters!
Shameful!
VTDigger ran a well researched three part series on the consequences of raising the Vermont minimum wage to $15 per hour. What is clear is that are many unanswered questions and potentially many negatives including the significant loss of lower wage jobs. Vermont already has one of the highest and most progressive ( now tied to cost of living) minimum wages in the country. We need to do better than passing well intended legislation that attempts a simple answer to a complex problem. It might be wise to hold this one off till we are sure we have it right. The disappointing experiences with Vermont Health Connect and Act 46 should have taught us that.
Unfortunately the housing rents are one of the highest in the country here so making ends meet are harder. No wonder people have to work two or more jobs just to make ends meet but the legislature doesn’t seem to care about things like that!