The Metropolitan Airports Commission, which governs Minneapolis-St. Paul International (MSP), gave preliminary approval to a $10 minimum wage for select employees at the airport at its meeting May 18.
A final vote on the wage is expected at the MAC’s June meeting, at which time the governing body is also expected to discuss the possibility of even higher wages.
The minimum wage in Minnesota stands at $8 an hour and is scheduled to rise to $9 an hour Aug. 1. On that date, the new MSP minimum wage would become effective at $10 an hour, $1 higher than the state minimum. The MSP minimum would be indexed to the state minimum wage so that any time the state minimum rises, the MSP minimum would also rise to remain $1 above the state minimum, airport spokesperson Patrick Hogan said.
Under the current proposal, companies that are required to have a Limited Air Service or Limited Commercial Service license from the MAC, and that employ at least 21 workers, would be covered under the airport minimum wage. Those are companies operating at MSP under contract to airlines for aircraft cabin cleaning, wheelchair assistance and electric cart transportation services. An estimated 2,800 workers would be covered by the airport minimum wage.
Concessionaires and rental car companies are not included in the proposed increase.
“We felt at this point in time that this makes a lot of sense,” noted Dan Boivin, chair of the MAC during Monday’s meeting. “We’re in an open [request for proposals] process on concessionaires. To change the rules for concessionaires at this point in time I think would be unfair. And in talking with other commissioners, there really wasn’t an appetite to spread this around the entire airport.”
The vote scheduled for next month will come after more than two years of discussions surrounding wages at MSP. The move remains controversial. At the May meeting, representatives from the airline industry expressed their opposition to being singled, out and labor groups and individuals lobbied for a $15 minimum wage.
The MAC discussion at its May meeting centered around a memo from MSP Executive Director and CEO Jeff Hamiel, in which he recommended the minimum wage increase.
The memo noted that excluding concessions companies means the wage increase “will not adversely impact the current or future concessions request for proposals process.”
“It should be noted that nearly 80 [percent] of concession employees at MSP are represented by a labor union,” Hamiel said in the memo. “As a result, the issue of wages and other terms and conditions of employment appear to be adequately addressed for this group of employees through the collective bargaining process.”
Hogan said MAC staff has been director to prepare paperwork that would be required to implement the minimum wage discussed on Monday and also to analyze the Quality Service Wage, a version of prevailing wage, proposed by the Service Employees International Union Local 26 in mid-May. Staff’s analysis of that proposal also will be discussed at the board’s meeting in June. The MAC board also asked staff to provide information on workers who would not be covered by the proposed minimum wage discussed on Monday, Hogan said.
