Thursday, June 21, 2018

Grand Bargain Bill - Adopted

The House and Senate have now adopted a bill, dubbed the 'Grand Bargain', which addresses several questions scheduled to be subject to ballot referenda in the state-wide election in November.

Under the bill, the minimum wage will go from $11 to $15 incrementally over five years and would eliminate time-and-a-half pay on Sundays and holidays- phased out over five years, a $1 billion paid family and medical leave program, paid for with contributions from employers and employees, will provide support for workers and their families, and a permanent annual sales tax holiday will be implemented every August.

The minimum wage ballot question called for a rate hike to $15 over four years with it indexed to automatically go up with the inflation rate. Leadership of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, the organization that sponsored the ballot question to roll the sales tax back to its traditional rate of 5%, agreed to remove the question as part of accepting concessions from Raise Up Massachusetts, the coalition which organized the wage and paid family leave ballot questions.

Here is a link to the text of the approved bill, H4640, An Act Relative To Minimum Wage, Paid Family Medical Leave And The Sales Tax Holiday and summary information about the contents.

Grand Bargain Powerpoint