Mass. bill increases minimum wage to $11

BOSTON – A bill that gradually raises the minimum wage to $11 in Massachusetts over three years has become law.
Signed by Gov. Deval L. Patrick last week, the legislation also lowers unemployment-insurance costs for employers, strengthens safety protections for workers and makes permanent the multiagency task force charged with combating the so-called “underground economy.”
The bill will help more than 800,000 Massachusetts wage earners, including tipped workers whose minimum pay will increase to $3.75 an hour by 2017. This is the first time tipped-worker wages have been raised in the state since 1999.
Under the bill, reforms to the state’s unemployment-insurance system would freeze UI rates for employers for three years and expand the wage base subject to those rates to $15,000. It also extends from one to three years the period the Mass. Department of Unemployment Assistance reviews an employer’s usage of UI benefits. •