"It's virtually impossible to live with any measure of decency at our current minimum wage of $6.75 an hour," said State Representative J. James Marzilli, Jr.
To combat this problem, Marzilli, a Democrat representing Arlington and Medford, has sponsored a bill that will gradually raise the minimum wage to $8.25 per hour. The legislation calls for an initial raise from the current $6.75 to $7.50, and then to $8.25 a year later.
The bill also calls for indexing for inflation for every year after the minimum wage is raised to $8.25.
For every subsequent year after the established raise level is reached, the wage would be increased at the same rate as inflation rises that year.
"Inflation has eaten away at the purchasing power of the minimum wage," said Marzilli, explaining his support for inflation indexing.
Representative and Tufts graduate Carl Sciortino, Jr. (LA '00), a fellow Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, agrees.
"I believe indexing is the only way to ensure that we continue to protect working families from poverty and to ensure that they get a fair share," said Sciortino, who represents Medford and Somerville.
According to supporters of the bill, the raise is particularly important given the comparatively high cost of living in Massachusetts.
Vermont, for example, has a higher minimum wage than Massachusetts, but a lower cost of living, according to Marzilli.
"Vermont is nowhere near as expensive [to live in] as Massachusetts," he said.
The bill, however, has met with small setbacks and larger controversies. Although the legislation was filed in December 2004, it only recently received a hearing before the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.
According to Sciortino, this delay is not unusual. "This is the natural progression for most bills in a committee process," he said.
Last month's recommendations of the Committee, however, were less than desirable for its sponsors. The Committee supported a raise to $7.75 per hour - without indexing for inflation.
According to Marzilli, however, the recommendation is a start. "I take the recommendation to be an official acknowledgment that we will raise the minimum wage by at least that much," he said.
Marzilli added that he will still pursue his initial recommendation. "The low wage workers are losing purchasing power every year because of inflation, and a dollar an hour [raise] is inadequate," he said.
Sciortino agreed, and also said he will support the original plan to raise the minimum wage to $8.25 and index for inflation. "We'll file amendments on the floor of the House," he said.
Outside of Beacon Hill, the legislation has caused a great deal of controversy. Many corporate interests are particularly opposed to the plan.
"We believe that it's tough to do business in Massachusetts right now, and this will only add to the burden," said Erin Trabucco, general counsel for the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
Trabucco said that the raise would cause many businesses to notch up their prices, which would be bad for the economy.
"They have a very small profit margin, and the consumer will end up paying for that in the end," she said.
Trabucco also said that such increases would make it harder for minimum wage workers to obtain and retain jobs.
"Employers still need to remain competitive in order to get good employees," she said. "By increasing the minimum wage, we're stifling job growth. It will make it more difficult for entry-level employees to enter the job sector."
According to Christopher McHugh, an economics lecturer at Tufts, this representation is not entirely accurate.
"I don't think you're going to see any pervasive increases in prices. Hamburgers aren't going to go up at McDonald's," he said.
Though McHugh does believe in indexing for inflation, he does not support an increase in the minimum wage.
"As an economist, it's pretty tough to believe in constraints on a market," he said, adding that he thinks that the market will correct itself.
If wages are too low, people will move away, and then employers will have to offer incentives, he said. "They'll have to raise the rates they pay [their employees] anyway," he said of such a case.
The proposal has created some disagreement on campus, with most coming down along partisan lines.
According to Jordan Greene, vice president of the Tufts Republicans, the raise would create unemployment among those workers least able to find other jobs.
Greene said that the solution is to do away with the minimum wage, allowing the actual rate of pay to be a negotiation between the employer and the employee.
Such measures, he said, would not result in a return to unfairly low wages.
"That requires believing that without a minimum wage, people would still be making 75 cents an hour," he said.
He added that Democrats' push to raise minimum wage is only exacerbating the current problem.
"A higher percentage of the able-bodied workforce ends up on welfare," he said. "Democrats see these statistics not as indication of failed policy but as justification for reflexively demanding an even higher minimum wage."
Aaron Banks, president of the Tufts Democrats, said that the increase will actually have the opposite effect.
"Workers who are able to provide for their families, afford basic health care and work fewer jobs will be more productive and place less strain on the welfare and social services systems," he said.
According to Banks, the policy will not hurt the local economy because the workers will spend their money to promote it.
"The working poor spend everything they make on necessities such as housing, food, clothing and healthcare," he said.
"The increase in wages will go right back into the local economy in the form of consumer spending," he added.
The last time Beacon Hill approved a raise in the minimum wage was in 1999, increasing the wage from $5.15 to $6.00 in 2000 and then to the current $6.75 in 2001.
Marzilli and Sciortino are unsure of when the proposals in this bill, if passed, would take effect because the exact date for its debate has not been scheduled.
