Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new law Thursday that could affect virtually every resident of Massachusetts, a week after lawmakers settled months of negotiations over proposed ballot questions that could have had dramatic consequences for the state’s finances and economy.

Legislators scrambled to assemble the so-called grand bargain bill after interest groups, fed up with inaction on Beacon Hill, initiated ballot drives and forced legislative leaders to engage with them at the negotiating table, or risk having major policies written into law by voters.

Under the law, the hourly minimum wage will rise from $11 to $15 over a five-year period. During those same five years, time-and-a-half pay for workers on Sundays and holidays will be phased out. An $800 million paid family and medical leave program overseen by the state government and backed by a payroll tax will be launched so workers can more easily take care of themselves and their families without facing fiscal crises.

And every August beginning in 2019, the state will suspend the 6.25 percent sales tax on many purchases for a weekend.

The governor was largely a bystander in the negotiations and declined to stake out positions on the issues while encouraging legislators to work on alternatives to the ballot questions. By signing the bill into law, Baker registered his support for its contents.

“The product of this is a far better product for the commonwealth than each of these as standalone entities would have been for Massachusetts, which is why I’m signing it,” Baker said Thursday.

The Republican governor, who is up for reelection this fall, has repeatedly voiced a general opposition to broad-based tax increases but in signing the compromise bill Thursday he gave the green light to a new payroll tax expected to pull in about $800 million.

“I guess the way I think about this is there’s a benefit that’s attached to this thing, and that benefit is a paid family leave provision that did not previously exist in state law,” Baker said Monday when asked if a no-new-taxes stance would prevent him from signing the bill.

The one issue involved in the negotiations that Baker did publicly support was a reduction in the state sales tax. The Retailers Association of Massachusetts proposed a ballot question cutting the tax rate from 6.25 percent to 5 percent.

Baker at the Republican convention in late April touted his support for a sales tax reduction, saying his opponents are against it, but he has not proposed a sales tax cut on Beacon Hill and it’s not clear how he plans to achieve it now that the grand bargain, which keeps the sales tax at 6.25 percent, has been signed into law and retailers have committed to dropping their popular tax relief question after scoring concessions on premium pay and a sales tax holiday.
Baker did not take questions from the press at Thursday’s bill signing, or make comments about the policy implications of the far-reaching legislation.