Tag Archives: state minimum wage

Mass minimum wage goes up to $9 an hour January 1, 2015. Then increases to $10, $11 … KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

Nice but NOT a living wage for Massachusetts workers … – R.T.

IMPORTANT [INCREASES] TO THE MASSACHUSETTS MINIMUM WAGE

In accordance with An Act Restoring the Minimum Wage and Providing Unemployment Insurance Reforms Chapter 144 of the Acts of 2014

Effective January 1, 2015

MINIMUM WAGE in Massachusetts will be $9.00 PER HOUR

The minimum wage law applies to all employees except those being rehabilitated or trained in charitable, educational, or religious institutions; members of religious orders; agricultural, floricultural, and …

… horticultural workers; those in professional service; and outside salespersons not reporting to or visiting their office daily.

See M.G.L. chapter 151, §§1 and 2. For further information regarding the Massachusetts state minimum wage

If you have questions, please contact the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards at (617) 626-6952 …

… or visit www.mass.gov/dols.

In no case shall the Massachusetts minimum wage rate be less than $0.50 higher than the effective federal minimum rate.

SERVICE RATE: $3.00 PER HOUR

Wait staff, service employees and service bartenders may be paid the service rate if they regularly receive tips of more than $20 a month, and if their average hourly tips, when added to the service rate, are equal to or exceed the basic minimum wage. See M.G.L. chapter 151, §7.

AGRICULTURAL RATE: $8.00 PER HOUR

Work on a farm and the growing and harvesting of agricultural, floricultural and horticultural commodities requires payment of no less than the above-listed rate per hour, except when such wage is paid to a child seventeen years of age or under, or to a parent, spouse, child or other member of the employer’s immediate family. See M.G.L. chapter 151, §2A.

Effective January 1, 2016:

• Minimum Wage shall be $10.00 per hour

• Service Rate shall be $3.35 per hour (provided service employee receives tips of more than $20 per month and if his/her average hourly tips, when added to the service rate, equals $10.00 per hour).

Effective January 1, 2017:

• Minimum Wage shall be $11.00 per hour

• Service Rate shall be $3.75 per hour (provided service employee receives tips of more than $20 per month and if his/her average hourly tips, when added to the service rate, equals $11.00 per hour).

Tweaked: This St. Patrick’s Day weekend Tim Murray gets amnesia

By Rosalie Tirella

Cynical people in Worcester knew this would happen. I was a wee bit optimistic. I was hoping former lieutenant governor and now present-day chamber of commerce head Timothy Murray would transcend his 2014 job title and do the right thing, do what he would have done if he were still Massachusetts lieutenant governor: support the call for a hike in the state’s minimum wage. Before he let his ambition run ram shackle over his morals. Oh, well, it was Tim’s political life to lose …

But now our disgraced former lieutenant governor is head of the local chamber of commerce, hauling in an obscene $200,000 a year salary! Wow! How lucky can you get?! You’d think the least the little twerp could do was throw a bone to the working stiff/stiffette and back an increase in the state’s minimum wage, from $8 to $9 an hour (the first year). Half the people in Worcester seem to be making it! 8 bucks an hour. You try raising your family on that chicken scratch, Tim!

But forget empathy! Tim is all about ME! Is he supporting his former friends in the state house? DeLeo and company – the state LEADERS who are saying: Massachusetts is one of the most expensive states in the country in which to live and raise a family. Working people need to make more than $8 an hour! They need to make at least $11. We’ll start them off with $9.

Paltry increase, really. Forget chicken scratch – more like chicken shit. Yet Tim Murray, a guy who could, as chamber head, make a difference in the conversation Woo is having, make a compelling case for the increase, DO THE RIGHT THING, has clammed up. The little mollusk!

Shame on you, Tim! And on St. Patrick’s Day weekend when so many parade marchers or observers were/are maid or housekeepers or factory workers or the sons or grandsons of maids or housekeepers or factory workers. Your people, like my people (Polish and Italian immigrants), had it grindingly hard when they first came to America. Our people know how brutal and exploitative and racist the American economy can be!

Yet this weekend, you get amnesia. You have forgotten your roots! You didn’t forget them on the campaign trail several years ago! When you were running for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts you made it known in every one of your political brochures, push cards, speeches and TV and radio ads: THAT YOUR ROOTS WERE HUMBLE. THAT YOUR GRANDPARENTS WERE WORKING CLASS. THAT YOU WERE REAL. NOT A PHONY.

And voters believed you.

But that was then. This is now.

So embodying the sleaziest aspects of BEING A GOOD POLITICIAN you change your tune, or you shut up all together. You let working families dangle because you’re playing for the other team. You’re representing Worcester business these days, not the working poor, of which Worcester has many. Tons, actually!!!!

Maybe you can come out for the minimum wage increase if you look at it like this, Tim: Worcester’s downtown is a ghost-town. Our inner-city neighborhoods are struggling. By putting more money into the wallets of the very people who live in or near these Worcester neighborhoods, you will help revive the very Worcester businesses you aim to help! More money for the working poor means more money poured into the local economy, often the restaurants or shops RIGHT IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS OR DOWNTOWN.

The money will flow back to Worcester businesses, Tim. An increase in the minimum wage will make Worcester families AND local businesses stronger.

But you don’t get it.

You were never too smart.

Worcester group joins the fight to make the minimum wage a living wage!

Do we agree with all their talking points? Abso-fuckin’-lutely!!! – R. Tirella

Hearing & Rally to Raise the Minimum Wage

Tuesday, June 11, at 10 a.m. at the State House in Gardiner Auditorium

Free buses leave Worcester City Hall at 8:30 a.m.
We’ll get back to Worcester by 5 p.m. (or earlier).

Join EPOCA in a solidarity action with Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN), Mass. AFL-CIO, SEIU State Council, Coalition for Social Justice/Coalition Against Poverty, Chelsea Collaborative, Brockton Interfaith Community, UIA of New Bedford and Fall River, Essex County Community Organization, MASSUniting, Jobs with Justice & NE United for Justice in demanding that the minimum wage be raised from $8 to $11 in our state.
Good Jobs that Pay a Living Wage: Raising Massachusetts

Legislation to raise the minimum wage: An Act to Promote the Commonwealth’s Economic Recovery with a Strong Minimum Wage

Our friends at MCAN are working on legislation, House 1701 and Senate 878 to:

1. Raise the minimum wage from $8 and hour to $11 an hour over 2+ years

2. Index it to inflation so it’s value is kept up

3. Raise the wages of tipped employees from 30% of the minimum wage up to 70%

580,000 low wage earners in Massachusetts will benefit [those earning $12 an hour or less now]. The minimum wage was last raised on January 1, 2008 and everyone knows just how much gas, oil, and food prices have increased since then. More than 2/3 of low wage earners are adults.

Most low wage earners work for large, profitable companies like Walmart, TJX/Marshalls/Home Goods, McDonalds, Burger King and supermarket chains. The CEO of TJX/Marshalls earned $21 million last year while three quarters of their workforce only had part time work and most earned at or near the minimum wage.

Economic Impact: The additional money that low wage earners will receive through minimum wage increases will be spent in the economy and therefore, boost it.