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Maine Senate President Proposes Amending Minimum Wage Initiative

AUGUSTA, Maine - Republican Senate President Michael Thibodeau says a citizen initiative that raised the minimum wage will need to be amended to reinstate the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers.

Thibodeau's statement puts him in early alignment with Gov. Paul LePage, but at odds with newly-elected Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon.

"Before we left this building last spring there was no question: I talked to Republicans and Democrats alike. All of them said that the tip credit needed to be fixed," Thibodeau says.

Thibodeau says eliminating the tip credit will hurt the restaurant industry and its workers. The Maine People's Alliance, which pushed Question 4, counters that the restaurant industry has continued to thrive in states where the wage is the same for tipped employees and regular workers.

Question 4 raises the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020, while also phasing out the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. Under the law, the minimum wage will be the same for tipped and regular workers. Currently the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, while tipped workers receive $3.75 an hour. 

Gideon says voters have spoken on Question 4 and that Democrats back the result. While she didn't specifically address changes to the tipped wage provision, incoming proposals from LePage and other lawmakers are likely to test Democrats' unity on the issue. 

In 2015, a proposal to eliminate the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers was soundly defeated following opposition from restaurant owners. The bill was unanimously opposed by Democrats and Republicans on the Labor, Commerce, Research and Development Committee.

Last year, several Democrats expressed concern about a similar provision in Question 4. Prior to the election, a group calling itself the Restaurant Workers of Maine began circulating a petition urging lawmakers to reinstate the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers.

The debate that will unfold during the new legislative session has taken place in other states. Some service workers fear that eliminating the sub-minimum wage will result in fewer or lower tips and result in a pay cut. The restaurant industry argues that it forces them to pay higher wages for tipped workers and non-tipped workers employed as chefs or management.

Advocates of so-called wage parity counter that the sub-minimum wage is an outdated form of compensation that creates a two-tiered wage system that disproportionately penalizes female workers.

Some restaurants in states that have either eliminated or raised the sub-minimum wage have experimented with eliminating tipping altogether and instead increased the wages of tipped workers.

Question 4 passed with more than 55 percent of the vote.

Journalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.