Portland City Council will vote Monday whether to send a referendum to voters in November that would increase the city’s minimum wage. 

The current minimum wage in Portland is $15 per hour; $7.50 per hour for tipped employees.

The proposal would incrementally bring the minimum wage for all employees up to $20 an hour by 2028. 

“A minimum wage worker in Portland currently makes less than $31,200 a year,” City Councilor Kate Sykes wrote in a July 12 memo. “That is less than half the median income in Portland.”

Sykes cited the left-leaning nonprofit Maine Center for Economic Policy in stating that an increase would be especially beneficial for women and people of color.

“Raising the minimum wage puts more money in the pockets of those who need it most, and it’s also one of the most effective tools we have at our disposal for confronting and reversing the affordable housing crisis,” Sykes wrote.

Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce opposes the measure, claiming that it is “being advanced without any citizen buy-in, in an attempt to institute policies already rejected by Portland voters just two years ago.”

The council meets Monday at 4 p.m. at City Hall.