by Randy LoBasso
– Philadelphia State Sen. Christine Tartaglione recently announced plans to introduce a bill which would raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $9 per hour.
Tartaglione, who represents parts of North and Northeast Philadelphia, joined with the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Philadelphia and local company Little Baby’s Ice Cream to make the announcement in time for Labor Day.
The state senator, who represents the second district, has been one of Harrisburg’s champions of labor and workers’ rights during her tenure in the state Senate, writing the bill that would eventually raise the minimum wage form $5.15 an hour to $7.15 in the middle of last decade.
The state’s minimum wage has now been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009, when the federal government raised the wage nationwide and Pennsylvania was forced to follow suit. The tipped minimum wage has remained below $3, however, since the early 90s.
Earlier this year, the senator noted what she’d be up against in the “Labor Report” section of her website.
“Today, we again have a governor and bicameral majorities that oppose adjusting the minimum wage for inflation, even though the last time we did it, Pennsylvania’s poverty rate took its biggest drop in decades. Opponents’ predictions of job losses were debunked with strong growth in low-wage service and health-care jobs,” she said.
Getting a minimum wage hike passed Gov. Corbett and some new rank-and-file Tea Party Republicans in the state Legislature is going to be harder than it was under Rendell—if not impossible.
The professional and libertarian right have always fought for the idea that if you raise the minimum wage, you not only take money from the CEO’s and owners’ pockets (the “job creators”), but you actually put more people out of a job. This theory has generally not proven to be true since the minimum wage has existed. Though the same argument has often been made of raising taxes on big business.
A worker earning minimum wage in Pennsylvania currently takes in about $290 per week, or $15,080 per year, and is often forced to take public assistance. This often means it’s the taxpayer, rather than the CEO, footing some of the bill for the minimum wage worker. Raising the wage to $9 would give employees about $3,500 more per year.
Last week, fast food employees staged a national walkout in numerous cities, including Wilmington, Delaware, demanding a $15 minimum wage.
Tartaglione’s most recent incarnation of a minimum wage standard happens to coincide with President Obama’s desire to raise the wage to the same numeric value, which he noted at his 2013 State of the Union.
Earlier this year, Philadelphia City Council expanded the 21st Century Minimum Wage and Benefits Standard to force city companies and contractors with 25 employees or fewer to pay a living wage of $10.88 per hour. This, of course, did not include private-sector workers in the city.
Source: http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2013/09/03/minimumwage201/
