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Pennsylvania State Senate
04/24/2024 01:25 AM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20170&cosponId=25111
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 26, 2018 05:00 PM
From: Senator Christine M. Tartaglione
To: All Senate members
Subject: Raising the Minimum Wage to $15 per hour by 2024
 

I will soon introduce a companion bill to HB 1520, Rep. Patty Kim’s legislation, that raises the standard minimum wage in Pennsylvania. My bill, like Rep. Kim’s, incrementally raises the minimum wage in proportion to the annual cost-of-living adjustment.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the 2018 Federal Poverty Threshold is $16,460 for a two-person household; for a family of three it is $20,780. At $7.25 an hour, the annual income for minimum wage earners is $15,080. Pennsylvania has not raised its minimum wage since 2006.

Specifically, if enacted, this bill would raise the minimum wage according to the following schedule:
  • $12.00 an hour on the effective date
  • $12.50 per hour, effective January 1st, 2019
  • $13.00 per hour, effective January 1st, 2020
  • $13.50 per hour, effective January 1st, 2021
  • $14.00 per hour, effective January 1st, 2022
  • $14.50 per hour, effective January 1st, 2023
  • $15.00 per hour, effective January 1st, 2024
  • Further increases calculated based on the annual cost-of-living adjustment

The minimum wage for tipped employees would increase according to the following schedule:
  • $9.00 an hour on the effective date
  • $9.38 an hour, effective January 1, 2019
  • $9.75 an hour, effective January 1, 2020
  • $10.13 an hour, effective January 1, 2021
  • $10.50 an hour, effective January 1, 2022
  • $10.88 an hour, effective January 1, 2023
  • $12.00 an hour, effective January 1, 2024
  • Further increases calculated based on the annual cost-of-living adjustment

Furthermore, beginning January 1st, 2025 and for each succeeding January 1st thereafter, the minimum wage rate would be increased by an annual cost-of-living adjustment calculated by the Secretary of Labor & Industry. The Secretary will calculate the increase using the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

Raising the minimum wage is the responsible thing to do. It will provide working families with a reasonable fair chance of keeping up with dynamic economic conditions, which the current minimum wage fails to do. Additionally, working families that earn more increase their financial capacity to spend, injecting revenue into Pennsylvania’s economy, and strengthen our overall financial health.

Please join me in sponsoring this legislation. The bill would take the political wrangling out of the minimum wage and prevent full-time workers from falling below the federal poverty line.

Introduced as SB1044