Portland Workers Deserve Fair Wages

We all deserve stable, livable wages and we all deserve to be able to feed our families, and pay for the roof over our heads like every other working professional. During the pandemic tips went down, guests became hostile, and sexual harassment went way up! We, service workers, are professionals and need to be compensated fairly.

In Maine, workers earning under $15/hr comprised 70% of all workers receiving food stamp benefits. The tipped wage disproportionately impacts women and people of color. In Maine, women make up 79% of tipped workers. By raising the minimum wage to $15/hour for all workers we would lift 77,626 Mainers out of poverty, a 53% reduction in poverty, and reduce the economic inequality for women and people of color.

The pandemic has only made things worse for workers in the service industry. Thousands of tipped workers have left the industry because conditions have gotten so bad.
> 53% of workers are considering leaving the industry
> 70% of whom indicate that they are leaving due to low wages and tips
> 78% say the only factor that would cause them to remain in the industry would be a livable wage with tips on top.

Maine small business restaurant employers have been voluntarily raising wages to recruit talented staff that would allow them to fully reopen. However, these small business employers need support: They need a level playing field to ensure all businesses are raising wages together, so that they are not at a competitive disadvantage.

The real solution to the labor shortage is to pay fair and livable wages so that workers can return to the industry that they left.