Republicans Reject Bid for $10 Minimum Wage

Republicans are trying to overcome opposition from Democrats to place competing minimum wage proposals on the November state ballot.

The Democrat-controlled House on Thursday voted to send a citizen initiative to voters that would raise the state's minimum wage to $12. Democrats also defeated a Republican motion that would have allowed for a competing ballot question that would raise the wage to $10.

Later in the day, Republicans on the labor committee used a bill held over from last year as a device to keep alive their push to place two competing minimum wage proposals on the November ballot.

The Senate will vote next week.

Progressive groups had gathered more than 75,000 valid signatures for the initiative, which would raise Maine's $7.50 hourly minimum wage to $12 by 2020.