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Senators introduce proposal to peg minimum wage to biennial "livable wage" calculation; committee to hear Public Assets Institute and JFO
Summary
S.67 would set Vermont's minimum wage to the state's biennial basic-needs "livable wage" calculation and then index it to CPI. Senators acknowledged the proposal would be a large fiscal and policy change and agreed to gather testimony from economists, the Public Assets Institute and the Joint Fiscal Office.
Senator sponsors presented S.67, a proposal to set Vermont's minimum wage to the "livable wage" calculated every two years by the state's basic-needs budget and to index future increases to the consumer price index (CPI).
A sponsor said the measure is intended to address affordability by aligning wages with the cost of living: "If we're really gonna begin to help get at Vermonters earning more, we need to put our money where our mouth is and set the minimum wage to be the livable wage," the sponsor said, citing the two-year basic-needs calculation that produces blended urban and rural figures.
Committee members reacted to the scale and fiscal implications. Some described the measure as a heavy lift that could have large budget consequences for state-contracted workers and social-service programs paid through the state budget. One member said past attempts to raise state pay to match a livable-wage benchmark had been too costly for the state budget and cited home-care and social-service sectors as areas of concern. Another committee member said the committee should solicit multiple perspectives: the Public Assets Institute would present one side and JFO would provide fiscal modeling; the committee agreed to invite both.
Members also debated whether to prioritize this bill before crossover given limited committee bandwidth and the breadth of other labor bills currently before the panel. No action was taken; the committee scheduled testimony for Thursday that will include the Public Assets Institute and JFO and said it would gather additional economic testimony to capture multiple viewpoints.
