Travis Gauvin, a bartender at Sur Lie in Portland, said the city’s tip credit is “a tool that allows businesses to pay people less than their worth” but that it rarely kicks in.  Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

The Portland City Council will decide Monday whether to put a $20 minimum wage proposal on the November ballot that would put workers in Maine’s largest city on track to have the highest minimum hourly rate in the nation.

Councilors also will consider two other wage-related referendum questions for the Nov. 5 ballot. One would do away with the city’s so-called tip credit within 10 years and, critics say, effectively eliminate tipping for service workers. The other would limit the city’s emergency wage provision so workers would get higher pay only when a state of emergency is declared in Portland, not the general region.

These wage-related issues have come up multiple times in Portland in recent years.

Sponsored by Councilors Regina Phillips, Anna Trevorrow and Kate Sykes, the minimum wage proposal would increase the city’s minimum hourly rate to $20 by 2028 – 33% above the current minimum of $15 an hour.

Maine’s minimum wage is $14.15 per hour, which is $6.90 more than the $7.25 federal minimum. The highest minimum wage in the nation is $17 an hour, paid in Washington, D.C., followed by $16.28 in Washington state and $16 in Connecticut.

Sykes said raising the minimum wage to $20 would once again make Portland a leader in countering pay disparities that overwhelmingly impact women, people of color, immigrants and Indigenous communities.

It’s also one of the most effective ways to address the affordable housing crisis and to help businesses attract and keep workers amid a widespread labor shortage, she said.

“I don’t want Portland to be just the economic engine of the state,” Sykes said. “I want Portland to be a place people come to get good-paying jobs. I also want it to be a place of hope for immigrants and others coming to Maine.”

MINIMUM WAGE

Raising Portland’s minimum wage to $20 by 2028 would have the greatest benefit to workers ages 16 to 34 years old with a high school education or less and in service industries including restaurants, hotels, elder and child care facilities, and cleaning companies, according to a 2024 analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

“Like they say about a rising tide, it would raise all boats,” Sykes said. “We talk a lot about helping the economy, but workers are the economy.”

While Sykes disputes the common criticism that raising the minimum wage would hurt businesses, the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce says it does.

The organization featured the minimum wage and tipping proposals in an advocacy alert emailed to members on Wednesday. It emphasized that Sykes has been an organizer for the Democratic Socialists of America, which previously tried to change the city’s tipping regulations in a 2022 referendum that was rejected by 61% of Portland voters.

Chamber CEO Quincy Hentzel said the latest minimum wage and tipping proposals would “crush” the restaurant and tourism industries in Portland.

“This council continues to push the radical agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America and ignore an inclusive stakeholder process that a governing body should embrace,” Hentzel said in a separate statement. “Portland can and should do better, and I’m hopeful that if these issues make it to the ballot in November, voters will reject both policies and those who sponsored them.”

The chamber urged members to attend the 4 p.m. council meeting on Monday and speak out about the impacts that the proposals would have on their businesses. Each referendum requires affirmative votes from five councilors to be placed on the ballot.

Travis Gauvin, a bartender at Sur Lie tapas restaurant, said he’s on the fence about the $20 minimum wage proposal because he can see both sides. In food service for over 13 years, he said he works for “a good hourly wage” and tips. He declined to say how much he gets paid.

“I believe in (employers) paying a livable wage and taking care of (their) employees,” said Gauvin, 32, of Falmouth. “I also want a steady income when the tourist season falls off. But I’m having trouble with the $20 amount because it might be tough for some businesses to pay that much.”

TIP CREDIT 

The second wage-related ballot proposal would sunset Portland’s tip credit provision. It requires employers to pay service workers a sub-minimum wage of at least $7.50 an hour – half the city’s current minimum wage – plus the difference if an employee’s combined wages and tips average less than $15 per hour each week.

The tipping proposal, pitched by Sykes, Trevorrow and Councilor Victoria Pelletier, would gradually increase the city’s sub-minimum wage requirement from $10 in 2025 to $21 in 2033, then eliminate it altogether in 2034.

The proposal would “ensure that tipped workers receive the full minimum wage that all workers receive, plus tips,” according to a council memo. “In 2020, Maine eliminated the sub-minimum wage for disabled workers, but tipped workers still suffer under this inequitable law.”

Opponents say eliminating the city’s sub-minimum wage for service workers would force restaurants to raise menu prices and eliminate tipping if employees were paid full minimum wage.

“We’re completely against it,” said Jill Moses, co-owner of Three Dollar Deweys. “We’ve been through this multiple times at the local and state levels. Every time, staff members come out in droves to fight it, yet they keep proposing it.”

Moses said she polled servers at Deweys and most make more than $30 an hour in wages and tips, combined. Many restaurant workers are frustrated by the repeated threats to their livelihoods, she said.

“It would wind up being a huge pay cut for our servers,” Moses said.

Gauvin, Sur Lie’s bartender, questioned the effectiveness of the tip credit and disputed that tipping would ever be eliminated.

“I don’t think tipping is ever going away,” Gauvin said. “It’s part of our culture as a way to show appreciation for good service. In my experience, the tip credit rarely kicks in. It’s just a tool that allows businesses to pay people less than their worth.”

EMERGENCY WAGES

The third wage-related ballot proposal on Monday’s council agenda would revise the city’s emergency wage provision to limit the requirement to local states of emergency.

As it stands, employers in Portland must pay workers at least 1.5 times the regular minimum wage whenever the governor declares a state of emergency in Cumberland County or statewide.

Sasha Shunk, who operates a child care program in her home, is the principal officer of the ballot question committee that gathered voter signatures to put the revision question on the November ballot.

“It’s important that we have a little bit more control over whether the emergency wage would go into effect,” Shunk said. “The higher wage wouldn’t apply unless the city declared a state of emergency.”