There has been much talk about the need for bipartisanship in this year’s closely divided N.H. Legislature, but when it comes to the hourly minimum wage, a clear partisan division was front and center on Tuesday.

Democratic lawmakers argued for an increase in House and Senate committee meetings, while Republicans said it should remain at the federal minimum of $7.25, lowest in the Northeast and unchanged since 2009.

The House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee on Tuesday deadlocked 10-10 on Democratic-sponsored House Bill 57, which would increase the minimum to $13.50 on Sept. 1, $14.25 next year and $15 in 2025. The measure next goes to the full House.

Rep. Donald Bouchard, D-Manchester, said tens of thousands of workers in New Hampshire would see a pay increase under the bill.

“Countless studies show an increase in the minimum wage does not result in massive job losses,” he said.

“And, though a $15 minimum wage is still not a living wage, it can help lift individuals and families out of poverty, establish a degree of economic security for them and reduce chronic anxiety and stress often experienced due to income insufficiencies.”

Rep. Michael Granger, R-Milton Mills, said most people are already making more than $15 an hour, but raising the minimum would hurt the lowest-wage earners.

He used his own experience as an example. He said he was paid under the table in his first jobs in New York because employers couldn’t afford to pay him the minimum wage.

“I feel the minimum wage is a complete travesty in the way it just throws young people under the bus,” Granger said. “It takes the bottom legs off the ladder and anybody who wants to get out of the pit — you’re poor, you’re broke — you can’t get out. You can’t earn $15 an hour because you’re not worth $15 an hour.”

A few hours before the tie vote in the House committee, Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, spoke on behalf of her minimum-wage-increase measure, Senate Bill 144, in the Senate Commerce Committee. She got a cool reception from Republican lawmakers, one of whom said his own teenage daughter doesn’t deserve more than $7.25.

Soucy’s measure, with Sen. Donovan Fenton, D-Keene, as one of the co-sponsors, would increase the minimum to $13 on Sept. 1 and $15 on July 1, 2024.

Her presentation included a map showing the minimum wage in neighboring states: $15 in Massachusetts and Connecticut, $13.80 in Maine, $13.18 in Vermont and $13 in Rhode Island.

“In New England, New Hampshire is grossly behind the other states,” she said.

“Granite Staters who work full-time are forced to turn to government assistance in some cases due to our inability to pay a living wage.”

A person who works 40 hours a week at $7.25 an hour would make about $15,000 a year.

In Cheshire County, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $964 plus average utility costs of $186, according to N.H. Housing’s 2022 Residential Rental Cost Survey Report.

Soucy said she first introduced a bill to increase the minimum wage 10 years ago, and prices have gone up across the board since then.

Rev. John Gregory-Davis of Meriden Congregational Church spoke in favor of her bill.

“You don’t need to be an economist to understand two moral travesties of this situation,” he said. “First, no one can support themselves, no matter how hard they work, on this paltry wage, and secondly that none of us wish to see anyone we know or love forced to work for such inadequate compensation.

“This is an injustice we can address, and it is long past time we do so.”

Sen. William Gannon, R-Sandown, responded that he doesn’t mind that his 14-year-old daughter may get a job this coming summer scooping ice cream for $7.25.

“She brings very low skills to the job. She’s never worked a cash register, she’s never scooped one scoop yet. On day one she’s not really bringing in much to the business.”

Gannon said the ice cream shop owner gives employees a raise of a dollar or two following a few months on the job.

“I look at the minimum wage as a training wage for young people,” Gannon said.

“As she learns more, my 14-year-old becomes 15, 16. She’s going to be worth a lot more money. She can go to Dunkin’ Donuts.”

Gregory-Davis said the girl deserves higher wages from the start.

“I contend she’s worth that now,” he said. “She’s a person.”

Bruce Berkey, a lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business, spoke against the measure.

He said wages should be market driven and by setting them too high, the state could lead employers to offer fewer jobs or give employees less hours. It could also spawn employee discontent and business problems as those now making $15 or more would demand raises, Berkey said.

“It ends up hurting the very employees that advocates of a higher minimum wage are trying to assist,” he said.

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