HARRISBURG, Feb. 9, 2016 – Despite the financial challenges facing Pennsylvania due to Republican intransigence, the commonwealth’s leading advocate for a fairer minimum wage said she is pleased that Gov. Tom Wolf is calling for a $10.15 base hourly rate.
“The tunnel vision that has led Pennsylvania to a fiscal cliff has also prevented our frontline workers from receiving a pay raise for the past seven years,” Sen. Christine Tartaglione said following the governor’s annual budget address today.
“But $10.15 an hour is the best indication that our fight for a fair minimum wage will continue in earnest.”
Sen. Tartaglione led the charge to get Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $7.15 an hour in 2006. The state’s base hourly pay rate ticked up to its current level, $7.25 an hour, when the federal government approved that wage in 2009.
The Philadelphia Democrat’s current legislation, Senate Bill 195, move Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. Her Senate Bill 196 would hike the tipped minimum wage to 70 percent of the regular rate (or $3.95 an hour, based on a $10.10 minimum wage).
“More than a million workers will get a pay raise, countless employers will have more focused employees, and government subsidies will fall when the Republican leadership gets out of the way and finally allows a vote on proposals to increase the minimum wage,” Tartaglione said. “These increases are overdue. We must make this a priority.”
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Contact: Mark Shade