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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 2, 2018 03:48 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Art Haywood |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Raise the Wage - One Fair Wage and Eliminating Preemption |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that further addresses unfair wages in the Commonwealth. 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, and the tipped minimum wage has not changed since 1998. Further, when tips are not enough to bring a worker's average wage up to the full minimum wage, the employer is required by federal wage rules to make up the difference by "topping up" the employee. However, from 2010-2012, the U.S. Department of Labor found an 84% noncompliance rate in the restaurant industry. Additionally, municipalities are currently prohibited from implementing their own minimum wage greater than the state's minimum. This bill will add onto previously proposed legislation by Senator Tartaglione and Rep. Kim, raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars/hour by 2024 and raising the tipped wage to $12/hour by 2024, by gradually increasing the tipped minimum wage to meet the non-tipped minimum wage over 3 years after 2024. It also will eliminate the preemption provision preventing local municipalities from increasing their own minimum wages above the state minimum. Raising the minimum wage and phasing in one fair wage for tipped workers are the responsible things to do. These efforts will provide working families with a reasonable fair chance of keeping up with dynamic economic conditions. Tipped workers face higher rates of poverty and a greater reliance on public assistance than tipped workers in states that do not have a tipped subminimum wage. This is an equality issue, as nearly 70% of tipped restaurant workers are women, 40% of whom are mothers. 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 to boost the state's economy and to ensure that all Pennsylvanians are paid fair wages. |
Introduced as SB1045