Despite dire predictions from opponents of the 2016 minimum wage referendum, the Department of Labor announced Monday that Maine’s unemployment rate has stayed below four percent for nearly four years. In August, unemployment dipped to 2.9%, a new record low.
This streak is double the previous state record of almost two years, when the unemployment rate in Maine remained below four percent from September 1999 to July 2001.
Maine’s unemployment rate has remained under the national average since the minimum wage law took effect in 2017, after a successful referendum in November 2016, when the wage was $7.50 an hour. Last January, the minimum wage increased from $10 to $11 an hour. It will reach $12 next year, with subsequent yearly increases based on the cost of living. The DOL noted Monday that the non-agriculture and private sectors have each seen a gain of almost 7,000 jobs respectively since August 2018.
During the 2016 referendum campaign, opponents of the measure claimed that a minimum wage increase would devastate Maine’s economy, but these concerns have been proven false, according to James Myall, a policy analyst with the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
“When the minimum wage referendum was being considered in 2016, there were a whole bunch of doom and gloom predictions from critics, saying that it would lead to job losses and essentially drive up unemployment,” said Myall. “Obviously that hasn’t borne out to be the case. The employment market has continued to get better in Maine.”
(Top photo: Maine minimum wage increase supporters rally at the State House in 2015 | Staff)
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