In the near future we will be introducing comprehensive wage reform legislation. Put simply, the legislation would do four things in an attempt to lift some of our hardest-working fellow-citizens out of poverty.
- The bill will raise the minimum wage to $12.00 per hour, effective 30 days after the bill is signed into law. This is not an abrupt increase in that the minimum wage has not been raised at all in the past 5 years.
- The bill would index the minimum wage to inflation each year on the anniversary of the effective date of its enactment. This would obviate the need to have a fight over the minimum wage every few years and would ensure that the wages of workers could never again atrophy to below the poverty level. Currently 11 states index the minimum wage to inflation.
- The bill would repeal the "Tipped minimum wage" which allows workers to be paid substantially below the minimum wage. In fact, the national tipped minimum wage is only $2.13 per hour, while Pennsylvania’s is $2.83. This results in many workers, even with tips, making below the already low federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Further, employers are permitted to use tipped minimum wage workers for non-tippable work (such as cleaning the stock room) 20% of the time. We should not permit employers to outsource their obligation to pay their workers to customers for whom tips are voluntary.
- The bill would increase penalties for failure to pay the minimum wage, or using deceptive practices to cheat workers out of what they are owed under state and federal law. Specifically it would provide for treble damages and counsel fees for workers who are the victims of knowing violations of their rights under state and/or federal wage payment laws.
Please join us in supporting this important legislation.
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