Arguing that those earning the existing minimum wage are not making enough to live on, newly elected South Portland City Councilor Brad Fox is asking that the city at least discuss the possibility of creating a new, local minimum wage.

“I’ll be bringing up the minimum wage at our next council workshop meeting. I expect it will be added to an upcoming agenda. We need to take action if the state and federal governments won’t,” Fox said this week.

The City Council is scheduled to hold its next workshop at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 12.

According to Mayor Linda Cohen, “the process for getting an item on a workshop agenda is to bring it up when we are scheduling workshop items on our calendar. The council has been requiring a second councilor to support getting it on the agenda.”

In response to a request for comment on Fox’s desire to discuss a local minimum wage, Cohen told the Current, “I have no thoughts on this at this time.”

Fox said he’s proposing a local minimum wage hike higher than both the state and federal wage because “Congress isn’t going to do anything about it, nor is our state Legislature and governor.”

He added, “Other states have passed referendums, but we won’t be able to do that until 2016, if then. Many of our people aren’t earning a living wage, which means many of them need to work two jobs, and/or apply for food stamps and other kinds of assistance. It doesn’t make sense to have a full-time job and not be able to live on it. This is an important issue in my district, the entire city and state.”

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and Maine’s minimum wage is $7.50. Many states and large cities have recently passed increases to the minimum wage, with a number of those laws aiming to reach a minimum of $15 per hour within the next several years.

Just prior to Christmas, Fox issued a press release announcing his intent to get a local minimum wage discussion going in South Portland. Fox said one of his reasons for pushing the issue is that Portland is now considering a local increase to $9.50 by July of this year and $10.68 by Jan. 1, 2017.

Fox wrote in his press release, “The workshop would follow Portland’s lead and investigate the possibility of raising the minimum wage here in South Portland. We are united as an economic entity and what one city does affects the other and the entire region.”

He also argued, “There is no reliable economic analysis showing that raising the minimum wage reduces jobs. In fact, the evidence shows that increasing wages above the current minimum builds a stronger economy. When people earn a living wage they are better able to purchase goods and services, which would benefit our local businesses.”

Fox added, “When I ran for council, I told my neighbors that I would try to solve some of the biggest problems we have in South Portland, ones that affect their everyday lives. I believe that our extremely low minimum wage is one of those problems.”

The release continued, “I know that some folks will wish that I had put this off for a better time, but I realized I would be going against my fundamental belief in doing what’s right and necessary for the people who live and work in South Portland if I waited. I believe that the time has come to raise the minimum wage (locally).”

In an interview with the Current, Fox said one of the reasons he made his desire to talk about a minimum wage increase in South Portland public is because, “I (want to) let the community know what I’m thinking about, researching and trying to do (to) help keep people informed.”

Fox said he does not have a new minimum-wage figure in mind.

“That’s what we need to talk about. We want to get it right. Fortunately for us, Portland has done a lot of legwork here, as have other cities. So we won’t have to start from scratch,” he said.

He also argued that raising the minimum wage in South Portland would not necessarily dissuade companies from locating in the city.

“Companies base their decisions to locate in a community based on it having an educated workforce, good schools, a healthy environment and other amenities,” Fox said. “We’ve got all of that (and companies are) not looking for a place where workers earn low wages.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the first federal minimum wage was established in 1938, in the waning days of the Great Depression, which started with the stock market crash of October 1929.