Legislation aimed at raising wages

Legislation aimed at raising wages

In the last year, state representatives Jarrett Barrios and Marie St. Fleur have walked picket lines at human service agencies and rallied on behalf of health care providers and social workers.

Last week, the representatives took the battle to the State House, testifying in a hearing on a series of bills aimed at increasing the wages of some of the state's lowest-paid workers.

"When people decide to work in human services, they should not be forced to take a vow of poverty," St. Fleur said, speaking before the Joint Committee on Commerce and Labor.

St. Fleur testified on behalf of House bill 2469, which would "provide a slight salary increase that would put workers above the poverty level," she said.

"They're nurses aids, health care workers. They do the jobs nobody else wants to do. I think it's time we value that work the same as we value the work of teachers or firefighters.

"It's time we take a bold step and pay them a semblance of what they're worth."

The legislation would raise the minimum wages paid to workers contracted by the state's Department of Human Services -- including child care workers, and people who work with the elderly and mentally ill.

"What [the legislation] basically does is restore all those cost of living increases that people didn't get in the last 11 years," said Barrios, the lead sponsor of the bill.

The new wage would be set at $11 an hour.

"It's not a lot," he said, "but it's the least we can do to ensure that we provide quality service."

Testifying at the hearing were state lawmakers, union activists and worker advocates pushing for passage of several bills aimed at increasing wages for low income workers.

Drawing widespread support was Senate Bill 1812, An Act Maintaining the Value of the Minimum Wage, sponsored by Senate President Thomas Birmingham, which would automatically raise the wage level in accordance with changes to the Consumer Price Index.

"We index our salaries (to the CPI)," noted Lynn state Rep. Thomas McGee. "I see no reason why the hardest working people should not have a wage that can help support their families."

Also testifying on behalf of an increased minimum wage were two low-wage workers from Worcester, who spoke through an interpreter provided by Neighbor to Neighbor, a Worcester-based community organizing group.

Factory worker Felicita Rivera, a widow who works in a plastics factory, started her job 13 years ago earning $4.75 an hour. Now, she earns just $6.75 an hour.

"My children ask me for new shoes and new clothes," she testified. I can't support them."

Nelida Cotto, who works at a laundromat and supports three children on $7.30 an hour, says she has lobbied unsuccessfully for cost of living increases.

"Each time I ask for an increase in pay, I only receive an increase in work," she said.

State Rep. Byron Rushing's House Bill 2119 would establish a committee to investigate the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization on state laws.

The intervention of laws enacted by NAFTA and the WTO became a hot issue for Massachusetts after a law Rushing filed barring the state from investing in businesses that trade with Burma was successfully challenged in court by the North American Free Trade Council.

"Massachusetts and other states have found themselves subject to challenges to laws on their books," Rushing said. "We have no defense because of international law."

Photo (Jarrett Barrios)