PRINTER'S NO. 218

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SENATE BILL

No.

12

Session of

2021

INTRODUCED BY TARTAGLIONE, FONTANA, KEARNEY, HAYWOOD, BLAKE,

COLLETT, STREET, SANTARSIERO, BREWSTER, COSTA, SCHWANK, KANE,

HUGHES, CAPPELLETTI, SAVAL, COMITTA, L. WILLIAMS, MUTH,

rates for learners and apprentices; creating a Minimum Wage

Advisory Board and defining its powers and duties; conferring

powers and imposing duties upon the Department of Labor and

Industry; imposing duties on employers; and providing

penalties," further providing for definitions and for minimum

wages; providing for gratuities; further providing for

enforcement and rules and regulations, for penalties and for

civil actions; repealing provisions relating to preemption;

and providing for taxpayer savings and reinvestment.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

(d) "Wages" mean compensation due to any employe by reason

of his or her employment, payable in legal tender of the United

States or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at

full face value, subject to such deductions, charges or

allowances as may be permitted by regulations of the secretary

under section 9.

"Wage" paid to any employe includes the reasonable cost, as

determined by the secretary, to the employer for furnishing such

employe with board, lodging, or other facilities, if such board,

lodging, or other facilities are customarily furnished by such

the fair value of such board, lodging, or other facilities for

defined classes of employes and in defined areas, based on

average cost to the employer or to groups of employers similarly

situated, or average value to groups of employes, or other

appropriate measures of fair value. Such evaluations, where

applicable and pertinent, shall be used in lieu of actual

measure of cost in determining the wage paid to any employe.

[In determining the hourly wage an employer is required to

pay a tipped employe, the amount paid such employe by his or her

employer shall be an amount equal to: (i) the cash wage paid the

effect under section 4 of this act. The additional amount on

account of tips may not exceed the value of tips actually

received by the employe. The previous sentence shall not apply

with respect to any tipped employe unless:

(1) Such employe has been informed by the employer of the

provisions of this subsection;

(2) All tips received by such employe have been retained by

the employe and shall not be surrendered to the employer to be

and regularly receive tips.]

* * *

Section 4. Minimum Wages.--Except as may otherwise be

provided under this act:

(a) Every employer shall pay to each of his or her employes

wages for all hours worked at a rate of not less than:

(1) Two dollars sixty-five cents ($2.65) an hour upon the

effective date of this amendment.

(2) Two dollars ninety cents ($2.90) an hour during the year

beginning January 1, 1979.

(6) Five dollars fifteen cents ($5.15) an hour beginning

September 1, 1997.

(7) Six dollars twenty-five cents ($6.25) an hour beginning

January 1, 2007.

(8) Seven dollars fifteen cents ($7.15) an hour beginning

July 1, 2007.

(9) Twelve dollars ($12) an hour beginning July 1, 2021.

(10) Twelve dollars fifty cents ($12.50) an hour beginning

July 1, 2026.

(15) Fifteen dollars ($15) an hour beginning July 1, 2027.

(16) Beginning July 1, 2028, and for each succeeding July 1

thereafter, the minimum wage shall be increased by an annual

cost-of-living adjustment calculated by the secretary using the

percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban

Consumers (CPI-U) for the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and

Maryland area. In calculating the adjustment, the secretary

shall use the most recent twelve-month period for which figures

have been officially reported by the United States Department of

Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the next

Pennsylvania Bulletin.

* * *

Section 2. The act is amended by adding a section to read:

Section 5.2. Gratuities.--(a) A gratuity shall be the sole

property of the employe to whom the gratuity was paid, given or

left. An employer may not take a gratuity or a part of a

gratuity that was paid, given to or left for an employe by a

guest, customer or patron or require an employe to credit the

gratuity against the wages due to the employe from the employer.

(b) An employer that permits a guest, customer or patron to

pay a gratuity by credit card shall pay the employe the full

the date the guest, customer or patron authorized the credit

card payment.

Section 3. Sections 9, 12 and 13 of the act are amended to

read:

Section 9. Enforcement; Rules and Regulations.--[The

secretary shall enforce this act.] (a) The secretary shall make

and, from time to time, revise regulations, with the assistance

of the board, when requested by the secretary, which shall be

deemed appropriate to carry out the purposes of this act and to

safeguard the minimum wage rates thereby established. Such

allowances for board, lodging, apparel, or other facilities or

services customarily furnished by employers to employes;

[allowances for gratuities;] or allowances for such other

special conditions or circumstances which may be incidental to a

particular employer-employe relationship.

(b) The secretary shall have the authority to investigate

possible violations of this act and to assess administrative

penalties under section 12 of this act.

Section 12. Penalties.--(a) Any employer and his or her

agent, or the officer or agent of any corporation, who

sentenced to pay a fine of not less than [five hundred dollars

($500)] one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) nor more than

[one thousand dollars ($1,000)] three thousand dollars ($3,000),

and in default of the payment of such fine and costs, shall be

sentenced to imprisonment for not less than ten days nor more

than ninety days.

(b) Any employer or the officer or agent of any corporation

who pays or agrees to pay any employe less than the rates

applicable to such employe under this act shall, upon conviction

thereof in a summary proceeding, be sentenced to pay a fine of

five dollars ($225) nor more than [three hundred dollars ($300)]

nine hundred dollars ($900) or to undergo imprisonment of not

less than ten nor more than sixty days, or both. Each week in

which such employe is paid less than the rate applicable to him

or her under this act and for each employe who is paid less than

the prescribed rate, a separate offense shall be deemed to

occur. Any agreement between the employer and the employe to

[one hundred dollars ($100)] three hundred dollars ($300) nor

more than [five hundred dollars ($500)] one thousand five

hundred dollars ($1,500), and each day of such failure to comply

with this act or regulation, shall constitute a separate

offense.

his or her employer less than the minimum wages provided by

fees as may be allowed by the court, and any agreement between

the employer and the worker to work for less than such minimum

wage shall be no defense to such action. [At the request of any

employe paid less than the minimum wage to which such employe

was entitled under this act and regulations issued thereunder,

the secretary may take an assignment of such wage claim, in

collect the wages of any employe who is paid by his or her

employer less than the minimum wages provided by section 4 of

this act or by any regulation issued thereunder and the employer

shall be required to pay the cost and such reasonable attorney's

fees as may be allowed by the court.

(c) In an action under this section, the secretary may

recover liquidated damages in an amount equal to the wages owed

to the employe unless the employer shows that the act or

omission resulting in the nonpayment of wages was in good faith

and the employer had reasonable grounds for believing that the

act or omission was not in violation of this act.

Section 4. Section 14.1 of the act is repealed:

appropriation in which an amount is to be saved, on the

Department of Human Services' publicly accessible Internet

website; and

(2) forward a notice of the information under paragraph (1)

to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the

Pennsylvania Bulletin.

(b) Savings under subsection (a) shall be used to provide

Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.