By Simon Montlake
Christian Science Monitor, May 7, 2016
PORTLAND, MAINE — On a gray midweek morning, Jessica Rogers kneads pizza dough inside a downtown food court. A 20-something theater graduate, she’s working two jobs to pay the rent and put aside money for acting school in the fall. Across town at the Squeaky Clean laundromat, Lorena White ... puts in 27 hours a week and alternates with her husband, a hotel banquet server, in taking care of their teenage son.
In January, both women got a pay bump to $10.10 an hour, the new minimum wage in Portland, one of dozens of cities and states that have begun to raise the bar on wages in lieu of action at the federal level, where the minimum wage is stuck at $7.25 an hour. In Maine, the statutory minimum is $7.50. ...
In Maine, the debate has moved to the state ballot: Voters in November will decide if they support a $12-an-hour minimum wage by 2020. Supporters say this would benefit about one-fourth of the state’s workforce. ...
Jim Wellehan’s retail footprint is smaller. Started by his father in 1914, Lamey Wellehan Shoes has six branches and employs about 100 people. Mr. Wellehan ... has joined the campaign for $12 an hour. He’s proud of his staff’s pay – an average hourly rate of $15 – and their benefits, including paid vacations and sick leave. Retention is high; many raise families and retire from the job.
This was how companies used to treat employees, and he regrets the passing of this brand of capitalism and what he says has resulted: divided communities and rising inequality. “We’ve developed into a society of poor ghettos and rich ghettos,” he says. “We separated. We’re not a society anymore.”
Copyright 2016 The Christian Science Monitor