A Vermont bill to increase the state minimum wage to $15 an hour led to a debate between Springfield’s state legislators and area business leaders on Monday.
www.eagletimes.com
ill to hike Vermont minimum wage raises discussionFree Access | February 28, 2018 By PATRICK ADRIAN padrian@eagletimes.com SPRINGFIELD, Vt. A Vermont bill to increase the state minimum wage to $15 an hour led to a debate between Springfield’s state legislators and area business leaders on Monday. The state Senate approved that increase on a 20-10 vote Feb. 16, mandating that it take effect by 2024. The bill was sent to a House committee for study. The Senate bill increases the current state minimum of $10.50 to $11.10 beginning in 2019, followed by annual increases from 65 to 90 cents over five years. The measure includes provisions to protect tipped employees, like restaurant servers, from employers deducting their tips and adjusts the scale of eligibility for workers receiving child care assistance. Sens. Alicia Clarkson, D-Windsor, and Dick McCormick, D-Windsor, voted in favor of the bill. Clarkson and McCormick spoke to community members about the measure during a legislative breakfast in Springfield. “The two biggest budget drivers [in our state] are poverty and trauma, all of which are affected by families not earning enough money to be at home, spend time with their family and create a better world for themselves, “ Clarkson said. Clarkson said that the growth in Vermont’s public assistance spending is unsustainable and raising the minimum wage is an essential mechanism to getting individuals back on their financial feet. “My Republican colleagues like to say they want to give people a hand up, not a hand out,” said Clarkson. “Raising minimum wage is the best hand up anyone can imagine.” Clarkson said that $10.50 per hour is too far below the cost of living in Windsor County, whose median housing prices are the second highest in the state. While recognizing that county data gets skewed by more-affluent communities like Norwich, Clarkson said that for economic growth to take place in the Springfield area, more affordable housing is needed. Several members from Springfield’s business sector expressed concern. Reginald Green, president of Claremont Savings Bank, worried that Windsor County’s proximity to New Hampshire will have an adverse effect on the Springfield area. A $15 hourly wage would bring impoverished families from New Hampshire while driving Springfield’s businesses across the river. Green oversees banks in New Hampshire and Vermont, including one branch in downtown Springfield. He told Clarkson that a $4. increase in hourly wages might deter Claremont Savings Bank from considering another branch in Vermont. “The money has to come from somewhere,” Green told Clarkson. “It’s not a natural thing. The money doesn’t just come. If businesses are unable to make a living they will close, or move to New Hampshire.” Caitlin Christiana, executive director of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce, expressed reservations about the bill’s sustainability. While supporting the need for workers to earn a livable wage, she remained uncertain whether businesses would be able to afford it. She also questioned where the funds would be allocated to pay for a higher income eligibility to receive child care assistance. McCormick explained that raising the income eligibility was necessary to prevent “the cliff,” in which a wage increase cuts off a parent’s eligibility to receive child care assistance in order to work. If most of that parent’s paycheck has to pay for childcare, the parent may decide it does not make sense to work, McCormick said.
so is the state gonna make my employer give me the yearly raise of the wage,so i cam keep up,i'm guessing not,NH better start building more stores,because a lot of people will be doing business over there
ReplyDeleteOh, and they're not already? There are no stores here; I have to drive to Claremont, and shop at Wally World (yuck!) to get NEARLY EVERYTHING! This town NEEDS a big-box retail store, why not put a Target on the J&L site!
DeleteMake it $50 an hour. Nobody in their right mind would start a business here.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a list of all the businesses, large & small that have exodused Springfield in the last 20 years. I doubt most residents are aware how staggeringly telling it is to the lousy, economic climate here. Please keep that in mind when you go to the polls today to fund the tech ctr, SRDC and Spfld On The Dole.
ReplyDeleteWhat do wages have to with public works expenditures? Higher wages means more people paying more taxes, spending more money and generating more revenue. Most of the businesses that have left went to towns with higher wages, taxes, and cost of living. These towns ALSO spend more money on infrastructure, like tech schools. I lived in Rockford, Il when Fellows moved there. There, they found modern infrastrucure, a skilled labor pool, and a well-funded tech college. It takes money to make money; go cheap, and you get cheap!
DeleteVermont is the least business friendly state in the country. Nobody wants to open a business there.
DeleteNobody needs a big-box store.
ReplyDelete1. The money they get leaves town. The "multiplier effect" measures the circulation of money in town as it passes from customer to retailer to employee who in turn becomes a customer paying it to another retailer, ad infinitum. A dollar spent at Peebles will generate an additional 14 cents in Springfield spending. A dollar spent at the South Street Market will generate an additional 43 cents.
2. Big box stores treat their employees horribly. Up until the $10 minimum wage was passed, the average Vermont Wal-Mart worker earned $8.43-- and that was usually for a part-time job, since Wal-Mart knew that if it starved its workers, taxpayers would foot the bill for food stamps and housing rent. Plus, no medical insurance and no retirement plan (well, actually, they do have a retirement plan for most of their workers. It's called Death).
3. The big-box stores are doing whatever it takes to kill the free market-- they crush the competition (including other big box stores) and turn small towns' centers into deserts.
4. They buy the votes to make and keep this all legal. Thanks to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, they are now people and can own their own members of Congress.
5. Their CEO's are probably not bundles of joy in either the public square or the cocktail party. Read Michael Lewis' essay, "How Wealth Destroys the Soul" to understand people like Jeff Bezos, Michael Milken, Carl Icahn, Martin Shkreli, et al.
Springfield can protect itself against them and their works, but we haven't started yet.
I agree with you, Chuck, when it comes to Wal-Mart. But there are other chain stores that are not as harsh. As far as the economics, the chain stores offer selection and pricing that most mom-and-pops can't match. Critical for those on a fixed income. It's probably too late, anyhow. Amazon and other retailers are all on the internet now. THAT'S money leaving town, with no local jobs created! I would just like to be able to go somewhere other than Wally World, and see what I'm buying before I pay for it!
DeleteChuck might not be aware that shopping in Claremont is "leaving town." I'm sure today he voted to continue to fund public transportation that brings Springfielder's to New Hampshire shopping on a daily basis. Hypocrite.
DeleteAgreed, 3:43! One example would be the intramural bloodletting when two Market Basket execs battled for control of the company-- the Claremont employees staged a days-long demonstration in support of the employee-friendly one (who won, fortunately). But corporations, besides changing their spots as the directorship might decide, more often in my opinion, camouflage their true nature in the name of maximized profit.
ReplyDeleteOne recent local example was the sudden sale of four funeral homes, reported in the Message-- one of them in Chester, one in Ludlow and two others. It was not a case of four families suddenly deciding to retire jointly to Florida, but of Service International deciding the local market wasn't profitable enough.
Service International is basically, like BFI was, "four guys in a room in Texas" who came up with the idea of buying up local funeral homes, maximizing profits by having a local monopoly, but keeping the locals on as the front to disguise their control of the market. If you thought it was too pricey in Chester, you could opt to use Ludlow's instead, but the price would be the same. You would think you were dealing with two different owners, but you weren't. The last time I looked, they had only 17 percent of the funeral homes in America.
So, the money didn't stay in town; it went to Texas. And as Wal-Mart knows well, once they have the monopoly, goodbye to cheaper prices.
Well, that's the problem, isn't it? MONOPOLIES! The local Chamber of Commerce is just as likely to monopolize a market as the big-box retailers! Without competition to force businesses to provide the best deal for their customers, it ALL becomes a rip-off eventually. I've had a lot of problems with local renovation contractors. I went to a big-box retailer, and the problems vanished. They hired a company from New York to do my windows, and they came and did an excellent job. I went to them again for another project; this time they went with local contractors, and it was a disaster. Over time, over budget, and I had to fix everything they did! They were not the only ones, either. This town NEEDS outside competition, just to keep them honest!
Delete