AUGUSTA — Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill to hike the minimum wage this summer, but Democrats say it’s a ploy to undermine a more ambitious minimum wage increase on the November state ballot.
The Legislature will vote Friday when they meet to take up a growing number of vetoes by Republican Gov. Paul LePage.
The bill would raise the minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.50 and eventually to $10. The bill has an “emergency” preamble, which would allow it to become law in July if it wins the support of two-thirds of the Legislature.
Many Democrats who have long fought to increase the minimum wage plan to vote it down.
Maine voters in November will vote on a citizen-initiated referendum that would ramp up the minimum wage to $12.
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