OLYMPIA -- The controversial proposal to raise the state's minimum wage to $12 over four years is set for a Senate hearing on March 30, along with a bill that would require many Washington businesses to offer sick and safe leave to employees.

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee will hold the hearing two days before bills that have passed one chamber are required to get out of a committee from the other chamber, Chairman Mike Baumgartner, R-Spokane, said today. They could come up for a committee vote by April 1.

Baumgartner said he scheduled the hearing to give small businesses from around the state time enough time to make plans to attend and testify. He plans to invite a panel of legislators with varying views on the minimum wage, including Sen.Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, who introduced a similar $12 minimum wage bill in the Senate that did not get a hearing, and Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.

Last week, Baumgartner was criticized by Democratic leaders for holding few committee hearings in general on bills the House has passed,  and no scheduled session at the time for the minimum wage bill, which is one of their priorities. Republican leaders countered that Commerce and Labor has broad jurisdiction over many issues, and that a session on  minimum wage was expected.

The House passed its version of the $12 minimum wage early this month on a 51-46 partisan vote after most GOP efforts to change it were ruled out of order or voted down on similar partisan margins. Among the failed changes were proposals to allow employers to pay teen workers a lower wage, either for summer jobs or during training periods.

Because the title of the House proposal is narrowly written to specifically mention a $12 minimum wage without any new exemptions, House Speaker Frank Chopp ruled those amendments "beyond the scope" of the bill, and thus not eligible for a vote that could add them to the basic legislation.

After it passed, Senate Majority Caucus Chairwoman Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, predicted the House bill would have a "chilly" reception from the predominantly Republican caucus that controls the Senate.

Baumgartner had sponsored similar teen minimum wage proposals as separate Senate bills, which received hearings in the Commerce and Labor Committee and passed that panel on partisan votes. But they remained in the Rules Commitete and the full Senate never got a chance to vote on those bills. They are likely dead for the session.

"There weren't 25 votes," Baumgartner said Friday of the reason why the bills didn't come to the Senate floor. That's the minimum needed to pass a bill in the Senate. 

Some major business groups oppose the $12 minimum wage proposal, noting that the state's current minimum of $9.47 an hour is among the nation's highest and adjusted each year for inflation. But liberal groups, who have been joined by progressive business owners, argue $9.47 an hour is not a wage that allows a worker to support a family.

Voters in the city of Seatac have raised the minimum wage in that city to $15 and the city of Seattle passed an ordinance to raise it to $15 in that city between 2017 and 2019, depending on the size of the business.

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