Republican state senator calls for minimum wage cut during pandemic

[TexasTowelie]

State Sen. Stacey Guerin, a Republican member of the legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee, said Wednesday that the Mills administration should consider cancelling a cost-of-living increase to Maine’s minimum wage, scheduled for the beginning of next year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of a more than four-hour long video briefing with the Labor Committee on the state’s unemployment insurance system by Maine Department of Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman, Guerin also suggested the state look for ways to limit employers’ liability should their workers become sick on the job.

“I think another thing that we should be looking at, and the department should be recommending, is a freezing of the minimum wage increase that is due next January, because we know employers are barely hanging on. Many are already going out of business,” a masked Guerin, who represents parts of Penobscot County and owns a restaurant equipment supply company in Veazie, told Fortman.

Maine’s minimum wage was raised to $12 an hour last January and, beginning in 2021, will be raised each year based on inflation because of a successful 2016 ballot initiative.

Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/republican-state-senator-calls-for-minimum-wage-cut-during-pandemic/

[jpak]

1. Vile swine

Y9

[secondwind]

2. Unfettered capitalism is EVIL.

[jaxexpat]

3. They can always be counted on......

for ham-handed sensitivity and stupid ideas. Very dependable that way.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Is the state downsizing to meet the private sector?

So far I'm not seeing cuts in the cost of doing very much. The only rebates are for car insurance, and those are voluntary and driven by a competitive industry where consumers frequently change carriers for lower rates. If they didn't issue rebates, they'd lose customers.

Will the senator take a pay cut and lay off staff? Or are they all on the taxpayer dime as always. Has she cancelled limousines and state vehicle support? I don't know what they do in Maine, but in my state legislators are overpaid, overstaffed, overpopulated, and given lots of freebies that they vote themselves. Few ever make an issue of it, and voters are unaware. They just vote Republican and say how great their reps are.

[Mike Niendorff]

5. Vote every last one of them out.

Every Republican, every state, every office.

Out.



MDN

[modrepub]

6. There Is No Inflation for a COLA

We are probably in a deflationary state at the moment.

It's going to be interested to see how ME does since most of the state (outside of Portland) relies heavily on tourism. Not many people will be showing up in the state with a mandatory 14-day quarantine currently in effect.

[NCjack]

7. cut salaries of fed and state politicians -- now!

[lark]

8. How about they cut legislators pay by 50%?

They do far less for we the people than do the garbage collectors, postal workers, or anyone else, they should be the ones taking the paycut not the workers.

[paleotn]

9. Is he running for reelection this year?

If so, he's doing a rather poor job of it. Maybe he wants to get kicked out of Augusta.