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Connecticut Assembly Votes to Raise State Minimum Wage to $8.75

New Poll Finds Overwhelming Support for Raising CT’s Minimum Wage

Today the Connecticut Assembly voted to raise the state’s minimum wage. If passed by the full legislature, the measure would raise Connecticut’s minimum wage to $8.50 in 2013 and $8.75 in 2014. The vote follows a new Quinnipiac University poll that shows Connecticut residents overwhelmingly support raising the minimum wage.

The bill approved today includes a smaller increase in the minimum wage than the $9.25 previously proposed, and it eliminates the annual adjustment to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

“We applaud the Assembly for taking a step in the right direction, but also recognize that this reduced increase and lack of indexing dampens the boost Connecticut’s economy and families need,” said Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project. “Working families are being squeezed more than ever, between rising gas and living costs and flat paychecks. A strong minimum wage is crucial for increasing consumer spending and creating jobs.”

“A low minimum wage is good for the executives at Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, but poverty wages are bad for Connecticut. It’s time to raise the minimum wage. Today’s proposal is an important step in the right direction, because putting more wages in workers’ pockets is good for their families and our economy,” said Lindsay Farrell, Director of the Connecticut Working Families Party.

In the new Quinnipiac poll, 70% of all Connecticut voters stated support for raising the minimum wage. Support included 88% of Democrats, 69% of Independent voters, and 48% of Republicans. Additionally, 59 percent of voters with household incomes above $100,000 and 78 percent of those with incomes of less than $50,000 favor increasing the minimum wage. Seventy-four percent of women and 65 percent of men support an increase.
The minimum wage bill, H.B. 5291, is championed by Connecticut House Speaker Chris Donovan, and Joint Labor Committee co-chairs Representative Bruce “Zeke” Zalaski and Senator Edith Prague, and committee vice chairs Rep. Ezequiel Santiago and Senator Edwin Gomes.

In recent weeks, the New Jersey Assembly also passed legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage. The New York Assembly is expected to do the same in April. Minimum wage proposals are pending in Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri and California, as well as San Jose and Albuquerque.

The minimum wage is becoming more and more important for the Connecticut and national economies, with job growth strongest in low-wage industries. Indexing the minimum wage to inflation would also mean more predictability for businesses – after indexing, the minimum wage would rise at the same rate as other business costs.

Given that Connecticut has one of the highest costs of living in the country, even workers earning above the minimum wage still struggle to afford basic necessities: According to a recent study, a single worker in the state needs to earn no less than $17.61 per hour just to maintain basic economic security. The state’s minimum wage would be $10.34 today and $10.78 by 2014 if it had been updated each year based on the Consumer Price Index since 1968. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, President Obama called for raising the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011.

The most rigorous research over the past 15 years, including studies comparing job growth trends in neighboring counties across state lines with different minimum wages, have found that higher minimum wages do not result in job losses. Importantly, this research shows that these trends are the same for minimum wage increases implemented even during weak economic periods, such as the 2009 federal minimum wage increase.

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Advocates, parents, health care professionals and concerned citizens across the state are working around the clock to get word to Connecticut lawmakers that action needs to be taken to protect children from toxic chemical exposure. Armed with numerous peer-based scientific studies, they argue that a strong link has been demonstrated between exposure to toxic chemicals – such as Bisphenol-A and others – and serious health risks, particularly in children and infants whose bodies are still developing and therefore more vulnerable to the toxins.

Their opponents, the Toy Industry Association, are working just as hard to kill Senate Bill 274 – An Act Concerning Chemicals of Concern to Children as it would according to Anne Hulick RN, MS, JD, who is Coordinator for the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut, “Be a step forward to putting into place a process for identifying the most egregious chemicals used in children’s products.”

Mark A. Mitchell, MD, MPH, disputed claims by Industry Toy and Chemical Lobbyists that the bill will have no public health benefit. Dr. Mitchell is Founder and Senior Policy Advisor for Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice and works actively on the Federal level on behalf of the National Medical Association representing 40,000 African-American physicians and their patients, and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Campaign, a coalition of more than 300 organizations representing 11 million people.

“As the previous Director of the Hartford Health Department, I became interested in environmental health because so many of the diseases that are increasing – especially those that contribute to health disparities in low-income people and people of color, are associated with environmental exposures – the very exposures that this bill aims to reduce,” said Dr. Mitchell.

He went on to specifically address Toy Industry lobbyist claims that a law passed in 2010 that created a Chemical Innovations Institute already protects Connecticut citizens. “The Chemical Innovations Institute (CII) was never supposed to be involved in policymaking, in fact the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, which was instrumental in creating the CII, was adamant that the Institute be specifically a resource for businesses seeking information on how to switch to safer chemicals.”

“There is absolutely no language in PA-164 (which created the Chemical Innovations Institute) that creates a process to study policies put in place in other states to reduce the public’s exposure to toxic chemicals, and more importantly to report it’s findings back to the Legislature,” said Dr. Mitchell. “We are hopeful that once the Institute becomes funded it will become a valuable resource for businesses choosing to transition to safer chemicals.”

But Dr. Mitchell added that it would be both unrealistic and imprudent to expect that all Connecticut businesses will voluntarily seek out guidance from the Institute. Senate Bill 274 fills a necessary gap by examining what other states are doing successful with chemicals of concern to children, setting up a process for reducing exposure to the most harmful chemicals and working collaboratively with the CII to find safer alternatives.”

“As soon as we become parents, our first and foremost responsibility is to protect our children,” said Hacah Boros RN, MSN. “We certainly wouldn’t allow our kids to play in a pile of asbestos – this is absolutely no different. There are chemicals used in the manufacturing of popular toys that are associated with serious health risks like cancer, asthma, and autism and we’re up against an organization with annual budget of $16 million. In my opinion, investing that amount into making toys safer for our kids would be a much more responsible use of funds.”