The movement to raise the pay of low-income workers gained momentum this week as two Boston-area organizations announced new initiatives to increase wages.
Ticket agents, baggage handlers, and cabin cleaners at Logan Airport will be paid at least $10 an hour as of Jan. 1 and $11 the following year, if the Massachusetts Port Authority board acts as expected Thursday. The board is set to adopt a resolution to implement new state minimum wage rates a year earlier than required, marking the first time Massport has ordered airport contractors to go beyond state requirements.
In Lynn, employees at Lynn Community Health Center will be guaranteed $15 an hour — viewed by workers advocate as the minimum “living wage” — after eight years of service, under a new union contract announced Wednesday by 1199 SEIU, the local health care workers’ branch of the Service Employees International Union.
“If a community clinic like Lynn Community Health Center can figure this out,” said union spokesman Jeff Hall, “it certainly sends a message that larger, wealthier Boston hospitals should be able to do the same.”
The local pay increases follow minimum wage hikes in Seattle, New York, and San Diego and more low-wage workers taking to the streets to demand higher pay. On Wednesday, workers in the fast-growing home care industry held rallies in a dozen cities across the country. Airport workers are also banding together, with union help, and a number of airport authorities around the country are moving to increase their wages.
In Massachusetts, the minimum wage is set to rise to $11 an hour by 2017, starting with a bump to $9 an hour next year and $10 2016. But Massport would accelerate the increase for roughly 1,500 workers following a three-year organizing campaign by the local union 32BJ SEIU.
Johny Burthrum, 45, makes $8 an hour assisting people in wheelchairs at Logan. Burthrum, who also works as a cook on a cruise ship during the summer, said he hopes the $2-an-hour raise will let him save enough money to go to culinary school and move out of his daughters’ apartment in Jamaica Plain.
“It helps a whole lot,” he said. “If you don’t have money you can’t have a good life. If you don’t have money you can’t achieve.”
Thomas Glynn, chief executive of Massport, said the pay increase will help contractors hang on to workers. The more familiar they are with the airport, he said, the more alert they become to unusual activities, making Logan safer.
“It just seemed like a good faith effort to show the employees are valued,” he said. “It helps lower turnover, it helps lower training costs. We just think it’s a win-win.”
But Airlines for America, the industry trade group, does not approve of Massport’s method.
“There are appropriate ways to address minimum wage for all workers,” spokeswoman Jean Medina said in a statement, “and that is through the state Legislature or at the federal level, which would affect all workers, and not single out those who work at an airport.”
Meanwhile, health care workers in Lynn celebrated a tentative contract agreement, which would give raises to 140 medical and dental assistants, receptionists, medical records workers, and facility technicians. All union employees, who now earn a minimum of $11.38 an hour, will be guaranteed at least $13. By 2016, those with at least eight years’ experience will be boosted to $15.
Those with 10 years’ experience will immediately make $15 an hour.
“The raise will help a lot to catch up on bills, raise the kids,” said Sotum Sao, an 11-year receptionist at the center who makes $14.27 an hour and will get a bump to $15. “We feel that it should have happened a long time ago.”
The health center’s deputy director, Bob Dempkowski, said the higher wage scale will help attract and retain valuable workers.
Katie Johnston can be reached at katie.johnston@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ktkjohnston.