Push to boost RI minimum wage loses steam as public's interest is pulled to housing crisis
PROVIDENCE − The annual fight over the minimum wage in Rhode Island is on again, as it is in most legislative sessions, but the push appears to be less focused as the wage continues rising annually.
The minimum wage in Rhode Island increased to $13 an hour on Jan. 1, the second of four increases, and is set to rise to $15 an hour in 2025, the result of a bill passed in 2021.
Rhode Island Working Families Party Organization Director Zack Mezera said the scheduled increases passed in 2021 have muted the urgency of the issue. He said his group focuses on housing and child-care this legislative session – although both of those are related to the minimum wage, he said.
The minimum wage is already $15 an hour in neighboring Massachusetts and will be $15 an hour in Connecticut on June 1. Future increases in Connecticut will be linked to the rate of inflation.
More: Everything you need to know about Rhode Island's minimum wage in 2023
"It's a capacity problem, as there are only so many people up there and the [focus] of the public is on housing right now," Mezera said. "I'm glad there are so many different minimum wage bills going in, but after that campaign was won in 2021, I think it's a natural process of feeling out what will stick and catch fire."
For Sen. Leonidas Raptakis, the fight over the minimum wage has been a pet issue since 2007. One of the two related bills he filed would tie minimum wage increases every year to the Providence-area rate of inflation as published in the federal Consumer Price Index.
"It takes the pressure away from legislators," he said.
Rep. David Morales said he will also introduce a bill to link minimum wage increases to the rate of inflation.
Raptakis and Mezera both said the benefits of linking the increases to inflation would be that businesses paying the minimum wage would know what to expect each year and legislators could stop arguing over it and move on to other topics.
Raptakis said fellow legislators have previously said they would consider linking the minimum wage to inflation if it hits $15 an hour. Now that it is set to do that by 2025, he is hoping to get more traction.
The minimum wage still needs to be pushed higher than $15 an hour, regardless of any automatic increases, because it is not enough for a person to live on, Mezera said.
While R.I. lawmakers have given specific and gradual increases to the minimum wage, the state's constitution has legislators' pay set to increase, or decrease, with "changes in the cost of living" as determined by the federal government. When the new budget year started last July, that meant the part-time legislators received a 4.7% increase in pay. Their annual salaries went up by $791.26, from $16,835.37 to $17,626.63 a year.
Raptakis also introduced a bill to create a committee to study the minimum wage, how many people it affects and if it should be increased, or if the legislature needs to instead start thinking about broader legislation to create a living wage in the state, possibly aided by tax credits.
A report by the Economic Progress Institute found that a single adult needs to make at least $16.79 an hour, 40 hours a week, to make enough money to live in the state. Adding children drives up the living wage dramatically.
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"We can't wait for 2025 for it to be $15," said Rep. Enrique Sanchez. "We need to take measures to make it at least $19 to $20 because of the elevated inflation rates, the high cost of living and utilities."
Rep. Jennifer Stewart is a co-sponsor of all the House bills on the minimum wage and said she supports further increases and the elimination of carve-outs that allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage.
"Even though it'll be $15 an hour in a couple of years, it's still poverty wages, they're still wages insufficient for being able to do things that, especially if working full time, you ought to be able to do, including afford an apartment," she said.
No bills would eliminate the $3.89 minimum wage for tipped workers
None of the bills submitted so far would eliminate the exception for tipped workers. For them, the minimum wage is set at $3.89 an hour.
According to the Department of Labor and Training, tipped employees being paid $3.89 an hour need to make enough tips to make their hourly rate of pay the same as the current minimum wage. If they make less than that, their employer is required to pay them the difference.
Opposition to increasing, or eliminating, the tipped minimum wage is "particularly strong," Mezera said.
In the 2022 legislative session, lawmakers were urged by advocates, and service industry workers, to increase the minimum wage for tipped employees and Rep. Leonela Felix sponsored a bill to get rid of the "sub-minimum wage" by Jan. 1, 2028. She cited an Economic Policy Institute finding that when the Department of Labor investigated restaurants, 84% of the time, they were violating labor laws.
Bills aim to eliminate exceptions to minimum wage law
In the House, two of the three bills submitted so far deal with exceptions to the minimum wage law for domestic service workers and teenagers.
Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, said his organization doesn't have a general position on the minimum wage.
"We are very concerned when discriminatory carve-outs are kept in the law, especially ones that are very archaic," he said.
Brown lumped the exceptions to the minimum wage law, for domestic-service workers and teenagers, with a law repealed last year that had allowed employers to pay less than the minimum wage to people with disabilities.
"That law was archaic and the legislature did the right thing by repealing it and I hope they do the right thing with these bills as well," he said.
Sanchez, the primary sponsor of the bill to eliminate the exception for teenagers, said that as a Providence teacher he sees his students working for less than minimum wage. He is also advocating to raise the minimum wage.
Empowering municipalities to set their own minimum
A third bill would repeal a prohibition that prevents municipalities from setting the minimum wage within their borders, passed in 2014 through the budget, in response to efforts by hotel workers at the time to get Providence to institute a $15 minimum wage for their industry, as reported by UpriseRI.
Morales, the primary sponsor, said he was bothered at the time by the change in law and wants to rectify it. He proposed a similar repeal last year that failed.
State legislatures across the country have been responding to local efforts to increase the minimum wage by taking control away from cities and towns, called "preemption," according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The highest minimum wage in the country is in Seattle at $18.69.
What minimum wage bills have been introduced in the 2023 RI session?
Six total bills have been submitted related to minimum wage, as of the beginning of February.
Eliminate exception for teenagers
H 5181, introduced on Jan. 19 in the House, would eliminate the minimum wage exception for teenage students "working in nonprofit religious, educational, librarial, or community service organizations."
The minimum wage for them is set at 90% of the prevailing minimum wage. In 2023, that comes out to $11.70 an hour, compared to the 2023 minimum wage of $13 an hour.
Bill would end exception for "domestic service" workers
H 5371, introduced on Feb. 3 in the House, would eliminate the minimum wage exception for those who work in "domestic service in or about a private home."
The federal Department of Labor writes that these workers include "companions, babysitters, cooks, waiters, maids, housekeepers, nannies, nurses, caretakers, handymen, gardeners, home health aides, personal care aides, and family chauffeurs."
They must be paid at least the federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, although live-in domestic workers do not have to be paid overtime under federal law.
Rep. Leonela Felix is the primary sponsor. She did not respond to interview requests.
Allow municipalities to set a local minimum wage
H 5015, introduced on Jan. 6, would repeal a law that prevents municipalities from setting a higher minimum wage within their borders.
Among notable cities to increase minimum wage above that in their state are Seattle ($18.69), New York ($15), Chicago ($15.40) and San Francisco ($16.99), which ties increases to inflation.
Rep. David Morales is the primary sponsor. He could not be reached for an interview.
Bill to increase minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2025
S 0037, introduced on Feb. 1 in the Senate, would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2024, a year earlier than the current law, and to $20 an hour by Jan. 1, 2025.
Sen. Frank Ciccone is the primary, and only, sponsor. He did not respond to interview requests.
Morales said he will soon introduce legislation in the House to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2028.
Bill to link minimum wage increases to local inflation
S 0138, introduced on Feb. 1 in the Senate, would add a minimum wage increase in 2028, three years after it is currently set to hit $15 an hour, linked to the 2026 Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers, also known as the CPI-U.
Raptakis is the primary sponsor. Morales said he is introducing a similar bill in the House, which would take effect in 2026.
Bill to create legislative committee to study the future of minimum wage
S 0142, introduced on Feb. 1 in the Senate, would create an 11-member legislative study committee on minimum wage, to report back to the Senate in 2024.
Raptakis is the primary sponsor.
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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: What legislators want to do with the minimum wage in 2023
