QUESTION: Many starting wages are already well above Vermont's minimum wage. Is this an indication that Vermont needs to readdress what the minimum wage is, or an indication that the minimum wage is currently not needed? What changes, if any, would you like to see made to Vermont's minimum wage law?

ANSWER: Vermont recently passed fair minimum wage adjustment legislation. At the time, we could not have anticipated the wage pressure that happened during the pandemic and subsequent “great resignation”, when we lost thousands of employees from critical sectors of the workforce. I believe that we should postpone any further legislation until we know what the economic fallout of inflation and recession and its impact on businesses will be.