BOSTON – State Senator Dan Wolf (D-Harwich) was on hand Thursday morning as Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill to raise the minimum wage over the next three years.
It is a bill that Wolf has championed from the start. When describing the bill, Wolf is careful with his wording, saying the bill “restores” the minimum wage to what it was in the 1960s relative to the rest of the economy.
Through the bill, the minimum wage will be raised from $8 to $11, by increments of $1 over three years.
“On a dollar adjusted basis, it gets it back to about 50 cents less than it was in 1968,” he said.
The bill came out of conference committee two weeks ago.
Wolf said he has studied the economics of the change and believes it will stimulate the economy.
“This will infuse about 1.1 billion dollars a year back into the Massachusetts economy which will be spent in our communities, in our neighborhoods, in our stores, in our restaurants, in our automobile industry. The stimulative affect of this. I’m really excited by that and I’m convinced it’s really going to make a difference in the overall economy,” he said.
