Gov. Charlie Baker Signs Historic Minimum Wage Law

BEACON HILL, MA — By 2023 the minimum wage in the Commonwealth will be $15 an hour now that Gov. Charlie Baker signed a compromise bill that also requires paid sick leave for workers and makes a yearly August sales tax holiday permanent.

With its passage, Massachusetts becomes the third state, along with New York and California, to approve a $15 minimum wage and a statewide paid leave program.

“The compromise legislation passed by the Legislature will benefit low-income workers throughout the Commonwealth while providing a boost to our overall economy. This is a huge victory for Massachusetts working families," said Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington who took over championing the minimum wage legislation after Sen. Ken Donnelly passed away.

The "grand bargain" bill was a compromise to keep a series of ballot questions off the November ballot, including a proposal to cut the state sales tax from the current 6.25 percent to 5 percent.

Although State legislators said a number of some businesses were against the wage increase as unsustainable, the law will slowly increase the minimum wage for workers from $11 to $15 over a five year period. For servers in restaurants minimum hourly pay will jump from $3.75 to $6.75.

According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour could benefit nearly 1 million workers statewide. Of those affected earners, more than half are women and almost two-thirds work full time.

The new law also creates a $1 billion paid family and medical leave program guaranteeing up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a sick family member or new baby and up to 20 weeks of paid leave for someone's own medical needs. Currently, only about 13 percent of New England employers provide paid family and medical leave, according to Friedman. The program would not apply to small businesses with less than 50 employees.

At the same time, it will eventually eliminate mandatory time-and-a-half pay for Sundays and holidays.

The Senate passed the bill on June 21, and it went to Baker's desk Monday, but he didn't sign the bill until Thursday.

The original $15 minimum wage legislation (S.1004) was an initiative championed by the late Sen. Ken Donnelly and subsequently carried on by Sen. Cindy Friedman throughout the 2017-2018 legislative session.

“As our state becomes more expensive to live in, the need to ensure that our workers earn a living wage becomes more important,” said Friedman, who is a member of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.

Catch up on this bill here: Historic MA Wage Law Could Be Signed Soon

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch