Gabe’s Minimum Wage Increase Research Cited in BDN Article

Research by Todd Gabe, an economics professor at the University of Maine, was mentioned in a Bangor Daily News article about Bangor City Councilor Joe Baldacci pushing forward a plan to raise the minimum wage in the city and tie future wage changes to inflation. If approved, Baldacci’s ordinance would incrementally increase the minimum wage in Bangor, bumping the lowest paid workers to $8.25 per hour in 2016, $9 per hour in 2017, and $9.75 per hour in 2018, according to the article. Gabe’s research found raising the minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.25 per hour would impact 7 percent of workers in the Bangor metropolitan statistical area, the article states. At $9 per hour, 12 percent of the workforce would be affected, and at $9.75 per hour, 18 percent would see an increase, Gabe determined.