Nancy Remsen

Free Press Staff Writer

MIDDLESEX Randy George, co-owner with his wife of Red Hen Bakery and Café, hosted a bill-signing ceremony for a measure that mandates increases in the state's minimum wage every January for the next four years to achieve a wage of $10.50 an hour by 2018.

Good start, George said of the bill, but "our goal is to get to a livable wage."

George, who already pays $10.50 an hour to bakery employees without prior experience, called the current federal and state wage levels — $7.25 and $8.73 — "far too low."

"These are foolish numbers," he said. "To grow as a business, you can't do that by exploiting your own people." He challenged his business colleagues across the state to pay above the minimum.

Some lawmakers had hoped they could raise the state's minimum wage level faster than the new law does.

The House passed a bill that would have raised the wage to $10.10 next January, but Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Senate preferred a slower, phased-in increase to reduce the impact on employers. In the final days of the legislative session, the bill with the four-step plan was the measure that won Democratic, Progressive and Republican support.

House General Affairs Chairwoman Helen Head, D-South Burlington, referred to the House's desire for a quicker increase during remarks before Shumlin signed the bill, but added in the spirit of camaraderie on display Monday, "Most of all we are thrilled to see an increase."

Head said after the signing ceremony that it was unlikely the next Legislature would reopen the issue to speed up the wage increase.

The new law provides for a faster increase in the wage than existing law would have required. Since 2007, the wage has increased annually based on a consumer price index. That formula resumes after 2018, although the law says the increase would be 5 percent or the index, whichever is lower. The law also requires that beginning next January, tipped employees, such as waiters and waitresses, must be paid a wage equal to half the minimum wage. In 2015 that means $4.58 an hour up from this year's tipped wage of $4.23 an hour.

Opponents from some of the business advocacy groups had argued the legislation broke the "deal" reached nine years ago when the Legislature and Republican Gov. Jim Douglas agreed to annual adjustments of the wage based on the consumer price index. The National Federation of Independent Businesses Vermont argued the faster increases scheduled in the new law would put a strain on small businesses and impede economic growth.

Several lawmakers — representing Legislature's full political spectrum — drove long distances for the 10-minute event Monday. Rep. John Moran, D-Wardsboro, explained, "This bill means a lot to me. It is a step toward a livable wage."

Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, credited the Democratic governor with jump starting the Legislature on the issue midway through the session.

In early March Shumlin had traveled to Connecticut to join three other New England governors and President Barack Obama to announce support for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2017.

An increase in the federal minimum wage would be the best way to help workers across the country, Shumlin said Monday. Given that "this do-nothing Congress has not acted," he said states had to act to provide workers a fairer wage.

He defended the Vermont's phased-in approach as a way to address the need without creating big disparities in mandated wages among states. "We found the balance," he said.

Women especially benefit from the wage increase, Shumlin said, noting that 60 percent of minimum wage workers are women.

Christopher Curtis, a Legal Aid attorney, cheered the series of wage increases as a way to help Vermonters who struggle to cover apartment rents that average $1,000 a month for two-bedrooms. on low wages.

Daniel Barlow, policy director for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, said his organization looked forward to working with the administration and lawmakers on other reforms in the next session.

One such reform could be paid sick leave.

Shumlin called paid leave "the right thing to do," but said it would be more difficult to achieve — politically and financially.

The House General Committee passed a measure last winter that would have required employers to offer seven days of paid leave per year, but it died in the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate never took up the issue.

Opponents from business advocacy groups worried mandated sick leave would be costly and could force layoffs. They argued against a one-size-fits-all policy.

The debate over paid leave will continue. House General Chairwoman Head predicted renewed interest when a new Legislature convenes next winter. "Paid sick leave is very much alive."

Contact Nancy Remsen at 578-5685 or nremsen@freepressmedia.com. Follow Nancy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/nancybfp