Minimum wage hourly workers in four of the six New England states will get raises Monday, but New Hampshire residents, for the 15th year in a row, won’t be among them.
The minimum wage is scheduled to increase in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Massachusetts minimum hourly wage will hold steady at $15 an hour.
New Hampshire’s minimum wage will remain the federal minimum of $7.25, where it’s been since 2009. The 15 years since the federal wage has gone up is the longest since the minimum wage was created in 1938.
A bill that would’ve raised the Granite State’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 was killed by the state Senate in February. It was the 10th year in a row legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage has been introduced but hasn’t gone anywhere.
Meanwhile, workers in surrounding states will get a wage bump that’s nearly twice, or more than twice, New Hampshire’s rate.
- In Vermont, the 2024 minimum wage is $13.67, up from $13.18 in 2023. The tipped workers wage will be $6.84
- In Maine, the wage will be $14.15 an hour, up from $13.80. The tipped workers wage will be $7.08.
- In Massachusetts, the minimum wage will remain $15 an hour, with tipped workers making $6.75.
- In Rhode Island, the hourly minimum will rise from $13 an hour to $14, and in 2025, will be $15 an hour.
- Connecticut minimum wage will be $15.69 an hour, up from $15.
Minimum wage doesn’t apply to people who do household labor, domestic labor, farm labor, outside sales representatives, summer camps for minors, newspaper carriers, non-professional ski patrol and golf caddies.
It also doesn’t apply to tipped workers, who make $3.75 an hour if they make more than $30 in tips a month. If they make less, their employer must make up the difference to mee the hourly minimum. Gov. Chris Sununu in 2021 signed a bill that would freeze that rate if the federal minimum wage goes up.
The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill last January to raise the state’s minimum wage to $13.50 in September, and $15 Jan. 1, 2025, but the measure was killed by the Senate in February.
“New Hampshire continues to be on an island alone in New England, as all of our surrounding states have made efforts to ensure that their citizenry is guaranteed a baseline of a livable wage,” state Rep. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, said after the Senate voted 14-10 against the measure. Soucy has introduced a minimum wage hike for the past 10 years.
Those who oppose raising the New Hampshire minimum wage argue that small businesses can’t afford it. They also argue that a raise in the wage would hurt workers by decreasing their hours or eliminating jobs.
“Raising the minimum wage at a time when wage growth in New Hampshire has been significant is unnecessary,” Sen. Dan Innis, R-Bradford, said in February. “Rather we should be working to lessen the economic burdens being faced by Granite State businesses, not exacerbating them.”
Many business owners say that the minimum wage doesn’t matter — they must pay what the labor market demands, especially when it’s tight.
An economic study released in New Hampshire in 2021, based on 2019 data, found that New Hampshire could lose jobs if the minimum wage was increased to $15. But economists say the labor market has changed so much since the COVID-19 pandemic, that new analysis should be done.
And even pre-pandemic studies that found raising the minimum wage can lead to hours decreases and job losses, also found that those negative effects are minimal when compared to the larger benefits to workers of making more money, as well as the benefit to the economy as a whole when low-wage earners have more money in their pocket.
When the labor market is tight, businesses must pay more to get workers, and the wages New Hampshire’s businesses pay reflect that to a certain extent. But economists say that the $7.25 hourly minimum could become a concern if the labor market loosens up.
“It’s as tenuous as it gets,” Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist and policy consultant, told the New York Times. “The labor market has gained ground, but policy has not cemented that territory.”
The median hourly wage in New Hampshire, for all occupations, is $23.04, according to the most recent available U.S. Department of Labor statistics. Median means that half of all workers earn more, and half less.
The lowest-paid jobs in the state, by median hourly wage, according to the Department of Labor, are:
- Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers, $10.48
- Personal care and service workers, $10.61
- Ushers, lobby attendants and ticket takers, $11.49
- Amusement and recreation attendants, $11.54
- Baggage porters and bellhops, $11.65
- Pressers, textile, garment, workers, $12.75
- Food preparation and serving-related workers, $12.86
- Child care workers, $12.99
Low wages contribute to pay inequity, since low-wage jobs are disproportionately filled by people of color and women. Women make 75 cents to the dollar that men make in New Hampshire, with Black and Latina women in New Hampshire making 60 cents to the dollar compared to white men, according to the most recent American Community Survey statistics.
Minimum wage increases over the decades, nationally, have helped close that gap, according to the Economic Policy Institute. “Minimum wage increases in the late 1960s explained 20% of the decrease in the Black-white earnings gap in the years that followed, whereas failures to adequately increase the minimum wage after 1979 account for almost half of the increase in inequality between women at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution,” a July fact sheet by the institute says.
With that in mind, a minimum wage is about more than just the bottom line for businesses. It’s about how a community wants all members of its community to be regarded.