1.1 million employees profit with path to $15 minimal wage
Six in ten employees getting a elevate are ladies
Two-thirds of Pennsylvanians assist the minimal wage enhance
Governor Tom Wolf was joined by legislators, enterprise house owners and advocates right this moment to name on the Common Meeting to boost Pennsylvania’s minimal wage to $12 an hour with a path to $15. Greater than 1 million employees would get a lift of their paychecks, which creates new prospects for companies and strengthens the financial system for everybody.
“This isn’t about pitting employees in opposition to enterprise house owners, as a result of companies additionally stand to learn from a better minimal wage,” stated Gov. Wolf. “Growing the minimal wage places more cash into the pockets of employees, which provides native companies extra prospects. Boosting wages additionally will increase productiveness and reduces turnover.”
The governor’s plan will increase the state’s embarrassingly low minimal wage to $12 per hour on July 1, with annual will increase of $0.50 till reaching $15 per hour on July 1, 2027. Almost 1.1 million employees would get a elevate, which might add $4.4 billion to the state’s financial system.
The governor was joined for a press convention in Lancaster by Rep. Patty Kim, prime sponsor of HB 345 to boost the minimal wage, and native enterprise house owners Peter Barber, President, CEO and Co-owner of Two Dudes Portray Firm and Jennie Groff, CEO and Co-owner of Stroopies, Inc.
Sturdy Public Assist
Elevating the wage has sturdy public assist. A Franklin & Marshall School ballot launched in March discovered 67 percent of registered Pennsylvania voters support raising the minimum wage to $12 because the governor is proposing.
Eight different states are on path to $15, together with pink states. Within the November 2020 election, voters in Florida – which has a Republican governor and legislature and voted for President Trump – handed a constitutional modification to boost its minimal wage to $15 by 2026. President Biden additionally not too long ago took government motion to extend the minimal wage for federal contractors and tipped staff to $15. General, 29 different states, together with each state that borders Pennsylvania, have raised the minimal wage above $7.25 an hour.
“We’ve been in enterprise for nearly 35 years, and honest pay has been central to our success,” stated Peter Barber, CEO of Two Dudes Portray Firm in Lancaster, a full service portray firm with greater than 65 staff. “Our turnover is low, which saves us time and cash. Extra skilled staff do higher high quality work, are extra dependable, and supply higher customer support. Elevating Pennsylvania’s minimal wage to $15 by 2027 will strengthen companies and our financial system.”
“Our expertise as a small firm demonstrates that paying livable wages just isn’t solely doable, it’s good for enterprise,” stated Jennie Groff, CEO of Stroopies, Inc. a Lancaster meals producer in retail, wholesale and on-line distribution with 18 staff. “When your employees are cared for, they’ll be your largest property. $7.25 an hour is just too low to reside on. By elevating the minimal wage, we’ll put money into our employees, assist the expansion of our companies, and construct a stronger Pennsylvania.”
Barber and Groff are members of Enterprise for a Honest Minimal Wage, a community of enterprise house owners and executives and enterprise organizations that imagine a good minimal wage makes good enterprise sense.
Closing the pay hole
Elevating the minimal wage to $15 will create stronger monetary stability for ladies and individuals of shade throughout the commonwealth. Six in ten employees getting a pay increase are ladies, which represents almost 24 p.c of all ladies within the state. Moreover, a $15 wage flooring would immediately profit 35 p.c of Hispanic employees, 29 p.c of Black employees and 18 p.c of Asian employees. Seventy-five p.c of the employees are age 20 or older and almost 40 p.c work full-time, which refutes dangerous stereotypes by making clear that a whole bunch of hundreds of adults are caught making poverty wages
Rural employees acquire probably the most from elevating the minimal wage. The best proportion of employees getting a elevate with a $15 minimal wage are in 29 rural counties, in response to findings from the Keystone Analysis Heart. We should not enable any Pennsylvania employee to be left behind as different states elevate wages for his or her working households.
Staff preserve their jobs as states elevate the minimal wage.
A examine by the Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York discovered that as New York state regularly elevating its minimal wage to $15, wages are rising with out jobs losses. Low-wage employees residing in New York alongside the Pennsylvania border noticed their pay enhance by greater than 25 p.c, whereas the wages of Pennsylvania employees within the northern tier rose solely 15 p.c.
