THE COASTAL PACKET: Pay increase not hurting Maine restaurants

Wednesday, March 6

Pay increase not hurting Maine restaurants

Maine Beacon -While opponents of the state’s minimum wage law continue to claim that restaurants are unable to pay workers higher wages, publicly available labor and tax data shows that Maine’s restaurant and bar industry continues to flourish and has grown significantly even as voter-approved wage hikes have been implemented.

At beginning of 2017, as the minimum wage increased to $9 an hour, Maine’s bar and restaurant workers also got a raise in their non-tip pay. The wage floor for tipped workers rose from $3.75 to $5 an hour, a 33-percent hike and by far the largest in state history.

Later that year, the legislature repealed part of the minimum wage referendum, slowing but not completely halting wage increases for tipped workers in future years. The base wage for tipped workers increased again at the start of this year, from $5 to $5.50.

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