If you happen to see your Dorchester neighbor Lew Finfer sometime soon, be sure to tell him: “Thanks, Lew.”
He’ll likely shrug it off in his unassuming way, but Finfer is one of the people most responsible for a pay raise for minimum- wage workers that kicked in on Jan. 1. The hike from $11 an hour to $12 an hour, the first of five annual increases in the minimum wage, was agreed to last summer as part of a so-called “grand bargain” between Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker.
But the driving forces behind the “Fight for $15” were organizers like Finfer, who spent the better part of two years seeking to raise wages for working men and women in the Commonwealth. Finfer and his allies in the Raise UP Massachusetts coalition successfully gathered enough signatures to bring the wage increase proposal to the ballot last fall.
“The Raise Up Massachusetts of community, labor and religious groups made this happen,” Finfer wrote in a summary of the effort last July, around the time of the “grand bargain.” “We collected 350,000 signatures of voters during the fall 2017 and spring 2018 required signature collection periods. If we had not gotten the signatures to qualify these for the ballot, the Legislature would never have passed this. Never would have. Groups worked hard with thousands of volunteers collecting signatures in front of supermarkets, at MBTA stations, at meetings, after religious services.”
I probably saw Lew a dozen times over that time frame and he was never without his clipboard. One of the reasons he was so devoted to the cause is because he knew how many of his neighbors would benefit.
According to an analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the phased-in hike to $15 will directly or indirectly affect nearly 1 million workers in the state.
The law will raise the minimum wage to $12.75 in 2020, $13.50 in 2021, $14.25 in 2022, and $15 in 2023. It will also raise the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers to $4.95 in 2020, $5.55 in 2021, $6.15 in 2022, and $6.75 in 2023.
Over time, this will be a big deal for families in our neighborhood. Based on census data and projections, the research shows that 25 percent of wage earners in Dorchester and South Boston will see a bump in pay through this hike. In Mattapan and Roxbury, the number of affected workers will be 44 percent, according to MBPC. In the near term, Finfer estimates that 7,000 people in our neighborhood just got a pay boost from the $1 pay raise that kicked in last week.
Last Tuesday, the day the law kicked in, Finfer and his fellow organizers canvassed fast food restaurants in the neighborhood with a fact sheet explaining the wage hike— and telling them to be sure to check their paychecks to make sure their earnings were adjusted accordingly. They offered tips on what to do if they weren’t. It was classic Lew Finfer.
Not everyone will see a bump, of course. But for the hard-working men and women who work in service industries all over this city and Commonwealth, the new year is off to a better start. Thanks to Lew— and his allies.
– Bill Forry
