Minimum wage increase proposed

Minimum wage workers in Nebraska would get a raise under two proposals heard by the Business and Labor Committee Feb. 3.

LB943, introduced by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, would increase the minimum wage incrementally from $7.25 per hour to $9.00 by 2017.

“The purpose of this bill is to make hard work pay in Nebraska,” Nordquist said. Nebraska’s minimum wage has not increased since 2009, he said, when it was raised to $7.25 an hour. Nordquist said 32,000 workers currently earn minimum wage in Nebraska—the 13th highest ranking in the nation—with many of them needing Medicaid or other financial assistance to survive.

“By raising the minimum wage, we can affirm the dignity in a hard day’s work, help rebuild the middle class and help families earn enough to meet their basic needs,” Nordquist said.

Aubrey Mancuso of Voices for Children in Nebraska testified in support of both bills. The current minimum wage does not allow for one or two working parents to adequately provide for their family, she said.

“Parents working full time should be able to meet all of their children’s basic needs without assistance,” she said.

The committee also heard testimony on as second bill that would raise wages for tip earners.

LB947, introduced by Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop, would increase the tip earner minimum wage from $2.13 to $3.00 in 2014, and for each year thereafter, the lesser of 95 cents or the amount necessary to equal 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.

Waitress Sonia Bentley testified in support of LB947. Calling herself the “working poor,” Bentley told the committee that the current tip earner minimum wage of $2.13 per hour is not a fair rate.

“When a person works two full-time jobs and can still not manage to squeak by, then there’s an injustice being committed,” she said. “We are working as hard as we can just to keep our heads above water.”

Large corporations take advantage of tip-earning workers, she said, by paying low wages and shifting payment responsibilities onto customers. Gratuities should be considered only as reward for superior service, she added.

“They (customers) should not be expected to pay the biggest part of the salary of the employees of a multi-million or billion dollar corporation,” Bentley said.

If minimum wage kept pace with inflation, workers would receive more than $10 per hour, said Willie Barney of the Empowerment Network. Speaking in support of the bills, Barney said full-time minimum wage workers in Nebraska struggle to pay for essentials such as medication and utilities, despite doing “everything they are expected to do” to make a living.

Dick Clark of the Platte Institute testified in opposition to both bills.

“Raising the minimum wage is detrimental to workers, employers and consumers alike, and could be a real blow to Nebraska’s economy,” he said, largely because it makes workers too expensive to hire.

Coby Mach of the Lincoln Independent Business Association also testified in opposition to the bills. He called minimum wage jobs a “pathway into the workforce” from which a majority of workers quickly graduate to higher wages.

He said Lincoln’s economy would suffer adverse effects on a variety of levels from wage increases.

“Raising the minimum wage, we believe, would cause wage inflation as well as limit employers’ ability to hire low-skilled and inexperienced workers,” Mach said.

The committee took no immediate action on LB943 or LB947.