After some success across the country on the city and state level, Democrats in Maine voted against a $15 hourly minimum wage on Tuesday.
In Portland, the largest and heavily Democratic city in Maine, voters rejected a ballot measure that would go into effect in 2019, according to The Washington Post. Voters were open to minimum wage increases, but $15 was apparently too high.
Previously, the city council voted to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 in 2016. In August, a study critical of a $12 statewide minimum wage increase claimed 4,000 jobs would be lost.
Nevertheless, the possibility of a $12 statewide minimum, gradually implemented through 2020, enjoys majority support according to early polls.
That support suggests that a minimum wage increase is not a question of if, but how.
Just as voters in Ohio rejected marijuana legalization, the form that it takes is a bigger concern than the root issue of drug legalization or minimum wage hikes. A bad law might fail, but the policy has its base support.
With the minimum wage, at least, economic arguments don’t hold sway as much as voters’ thoughts on the role of government in the labor market. Part of the problem is that empirical evidence on minimum wage isn’t as clear-cut as supporters and defenders declare. Effects vary based on city populations and regional costs of living, among other factors.
Some evidence suggests that, if supporters see the minimum wage as a measure to fight poverty, it’s not so effective. The minimum wage debate doesn’t focus on strictly economic concerns.
Anxieties over equality, opportunity, and fairness offer powerful arguments to persuade voters. Maine voters show that a limit exists where economics isn’t overruled, but opposition to the minimum wage isn’t understanding the nuance if the only argument they use is economic.
