LASHERICA THORNTON, Harrisburg Bureau
12:00 AM
HARRISBURG — As Pennsylvania’s Legislature prepares to tackle the state budget in the coming weeks, lawmakers and advocates are pushing legislation to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a change that would lift the income of more than 215,000 residents in Allegheny County alone.
The longstanding fight over whether to boost the state’s current minimum wage of $7.25 — the same as the federal minimum — is bound to be front and center as legislators return to the Capitol Monday to begin trying to wrap up the budget by the June 30 deadline. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, proposed an increase to $12 as part of his budget proposal this year, and several Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican senator also support a hike.
Advocates say an increase would not only help low-income families live more comfortably, but help bolster the economy by giving more people more spending power. Critics counter that it would cost jobs as businesses hire fewer people.
Whether the issue finally comes up for a vote remains a question mark. It’s an election year, when legislators tend to avoid taking on controversial topics and engaging in prolonged partisan fights.
But pressure has been building to at least consider it: Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has been stagnant for 11 years, even as bordering states have pegged theirs at $8.25 to $10.40.
Work should be “a pathway out of poverty, not just another form of it,” said the Rev. Liz Bidgood Enders, president of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, at a rally Thursday of advocates for a higher minimum wage.
Read more at http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2018/06/03/Could-minimum-wage-hike-be-part-of-Pennsylvania-budget/stories/201806030112.
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