New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has vetoed a bill that would have increased New Hampshire’s minimum wage to $10 per hour in 2020 and $12 per hour in 2022.
The state’s minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum.
Sununu cited studies that show how other states and cities that have raised the minimum wage have seen take-home pay decline because minimum wage workers have their hours cut or their jobs eliminated.
The National Federation of Independent Business in New Hampshire supported Sununu, saying many small businesses can’t afford the increased labor costs.
A small number of states have passed bills to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour within the next few years: California will reach $15 an hour in 2022, Massachusetts in 2023, New Jersey in 2024 and Illinois and Maryland in 2025.
The U.S. House of Representatives also recently passed the Raise the Wage Act in a 231-199 vote, which would increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour a reality for nearly all American workers by 2025.
However, the bill is not expected to become law, as it still has to make it through the Senate and the President’s desk.
