Minimum Wage Hike Clears Labor Committee

A bill raising the state’s minimum wage cleared a key legislative committee by one vote this week.
The Labor and Public Employees Committee passed HB 5388, which increases the minimum wage in steps to $15 per hour by 2021, on a 7-6 vote.
The bill also provides for annual increases indexed to inflation beginning in 2023.
Under HB 5388, the minimum wage will rise from $10.10 an hour to $12 on January 1, 2019; to $13.50 the following year; and to $15 in 2021.
Beginning July 1, 2022, the commissioner of the state Department of Labor will determine additional annual wage increases to take effect each following January 1.
Those annual jumps will equal the percentage increase in the consumer price index—as calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics—for urban wage earners and clerical workers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Gjede (860.480.1784) | @egjede