Steven DiMillo of DiMillo’s on the Water speaks against raising the minimum wage during a meeting at Portland City Hall on Monday night5. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)
PORTLAND — The City Council voted narrowly Monday night to advance a proposal to voters that would increase the city’s minimum wage to $19 per hour by 2028.
After extensive discussion, the council passed the measure on a 5-4 vote. Councilors Sarah Michniewicz, Pious Ali, Ben Grant and Mayor Mark Dion voted against the proposal.
If voters approve the measure in November, the minimum wage would increase from $15.50 to $16.75 per hour on Jan. 1, 2026, then to $17.75 in 2027, and then to $19 per hour in 2028, giving Portland one of the highest minimum wages in the country.
After that, the wage would go up by the same amount as the annual cost-of-living increase.
Supporters of the proposal argued Monday that wages haven’t kept pace while the cost of living in Portland has skyrocketed. Opponents, including several business owners, expressed concern that raising the minimum wage could cause them to cut staff, close their doors or move outside the city.
Councilor Anna Bullett spoke during discussion about why she supported moving the wage increase forward to the voters.
“Change has to start somewhere and my sincere hope is that Portland will be seen as a leader in that change. Other municipalities in the state will have to follow suit, like they have on so many other things,” she said.
Ali spoke about why he decided to vote against moving the increase forward. He said the detrimental impact raising the minimum wage could have on nonprofits deterred him from supporting the proposal.
“I will not be supporting this,” he said. “Not because we don’t care about the workers in Portland but because of the unintended consequences that will happen if we move forward.”
PAST PROPOSALS
Last summer, a similar proposal to let voters decide whether to raise the wage came before the council, but it was sent back to committee for further consideration because of councilors’ concerns about the impact that it would have on the economy.
On Monday morning, Councilors Kate Sykes and Regina Phillips submitted a joint amendment to soften the proposed increase to $19 per hour by 2028 instead of $20 per hour by 2029, which was the original proposal brought forth last summer, and ultimately was approved by the committee in May.
Opponents of the potential increase have expressed frustration that the proposal will be on the ballot again after a similar measure failed in 2022.
That measure also included a proposal that would have eliminated the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, which was very controversial and drew ire from restaurant workers. But this time around, voters will only decide on the minimum wage.
Last week, Phillips pushed back on the sentiment that the council is considering the proposal too soon after the 2022 referendum.
“I think what people forget is that we just want to put it on the ballot,” Phillips said. “If people have a problem with the minimum wage increase, then they can advocate against it and vote against it.”
In 2020, Portland voters approved a measure that incrementally increased the city’s minimum wage from $12 to $15.
If raised to $19, Portland’s minimum wage would be one of the highest in the country.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank that tracks minimum wage data nationwide, the current highest minimum wage in the country is $21.16 in Burien, Washington. Several other municipalities in that area — including Seattle; the suburban cities Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila; and King County — have their own minimum wages north of $20 per hour.
Several cities in California, including Emeryville, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and West Hollywood, have minimum wages over $19. Washington, D.C., has a districtwide minimum of $17.95.
RESIDENTS SHARE CONCERNS
The City Council heard about an hour and a half of public comment about the proposal. Public opinion was relatively split, with about half of the speakers urging the council to advance the measure and the other half opposing it.
Brian Batson, community relations manager at MaineHealth spoke about the impact a minimum wage increase could have on the hospital system. He emphasized the thin margins it already operates on and the still unknown impact of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed by the federal government this summer.
“The bill is expected to cost Maine’s Medicaid program over $3 billion over the next 10 years,” said Batson. “Maine’s hospitals will see sicker patients who lack insurance and struggle with food insecurity.”
Batson said adjusting the minimum wage during a time of uncertainty could be detrimental to the hospital, costing it $23 million during an already tough time financially. He urged the council to vote against the proposal.
Jennifer Dearborn, human resources director at Port Resources, which provides day programs and residential services to people with developmental, cognitive, and behavioral health challenges, also spoke against the increase.
“We absolutely want to pay our hard-working team members higher wages, but we can only achieve this by receiving higher (reimbursement) rates,” she said. “If this wage increase is passed along to us before we have rates to support us, it would have a detrimental effect on those we support.”
Others spoke in support of the measure, saying the cost of living in Portland is simply too high for working people to get by on $15.50 per hour, Portland’s current minimum wage.
“A friend and colleague was literally selling his blood plasma to make rent,” one speaker, Buddy Moore, said during public comment.
Another speaker, Charlotte Ruddy also spoke in favor of the increase.
“No employer should be exempt from paying a living wage. If a business can’t afford to pay its employees, it can’t afford to do business,” she said. “Why should we expect workers to subsidize small businesses by accepting a sub-living wage for our region.”
Supporters of the proposal argued that moving the increase forward is necessary to keep pace with rising inflation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
