Recently, the Republican members of the Labor, Commerce, Research, and Economic Development Committee voted to support LD 1757, “An Act to Protect Maine’s Economy by Slowing the Rate at Which the State’s Minimum Wage will Increase and Establish a Training and Youth Wage (Emergency)” that if passed would lower future scheduled increases in the state’s minimum wage from $1.00 to 0.50 thereby capping the minimum wage at $11.00 instead of $12.00.

Apparently, Maine’s economy is in such danger from the projected minimum wage increase approved by the voters that this proposed legislation must be passed on an emergency basis. It should be noted that LD 1757 is in direct contrast to the mandate of the citizen referendum process in 2016, which raised the minimum from $7.50 to its current $10.00 per hour. There is no concrete evidence that that Maine’s economy is slowing down because of the raising of the minimum wage. In fact, the Maine economy is stronger now than it was when the minimum wage was $7.50.