Relative to minimum wage, paid family medical leave and the sales tax holiday

What it means

Raises the state minimum wage from $11.00 an hour to $12.00 in 2019, then $12.75, $13.50 and $14.25, reaching $15.00 in 2023, and raises the minimum cash wage for tipped workers from $3.75 to $4.35 in 2019, rising each year to $6.75 in 2023. Creates a state paid family and medical leave program: up to 12 weeks of family leave, 20 weeks of medical leave, or 26 weeks combined per year, paying 80 per cent of wages up to half the state average weekly wage and 50 per cent above that, with a $850.00 weekly maximum; it is funded by a payroll contribution starting at 0.63 per cent of wages on July 1, 2019 (employers may deduct up to 40 per cent of the medical leave share and up to 100 per cent of the family leave share from workers' pay, and employers with fewer than 25 employees do not pay the employer share), and benefits start January 1, 2021. Lowers the premium pay rate for retail work on Sundays and certain holidays from one and one-half times pay to 1.4 in 2019, falling by one-tenth each year to 1.1 in 2022, with a further change to that rule in 2023. Creates a permanent 2-day sales tax holiday each August for most items costing $2,500 or less, starting in 2019.

Source: official text and history of H.4640 on malegislature.gov. This describes the bill text posted there; amendments may have changed the version that was voted on.