WILLIAMS CALLS FOR MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

HARRISBURG, JUNE 5 – State Sen. Connie Williams stood up with hundreds of people from across the Commonwealth during a rally in Harrisburg today to call on her colleagues in the Senate to pass legislation to increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour.

“Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is immoral and we should be ashamed,” Williams said. “A person who works full time at minimum wage in Pennsylvania earns less than $11,000 a year. And to compound the issue, most minimum wage jobs do not offer health insurance. The less we pay in real wages, the more the state will have to pick-up in social service program costs. Not only are we keeping families below the poverty level by paying minimum wage, but we are also creating new uncompensated care cases for local hospitals.”

Williams is co-hosting a Senate Democratic Policy Committee briefing on the issue of hospital closures on June 6^th in Harrisburg. One of the issues behind closures is the level of uncompensated care that continues to rise.

“It is high time that we put aside the rhetoric that surrounds the debate in Harrisburg on minimum wage,” Williams said. “Nearly two-thirds of the people who would benefit from an increase in minimum wage are women and 71 percent over the age of 20.”

Based on a 40-hour work-week, an individual making minimum wage earns $10,712 a year. According to a report by the National Low Income Housing coalition, Pennsylvanians need to earn $13.82 per hour to afford the fair market rent for a two-bedroom home.

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is below the federal poverty level for a family of three ($16,090) and for a family of two ($12,830). When the rate of inflation is factored in, the buying power of the dollar decreases and today’s minimum wage is the equivalent of only $4.19 in 1995.

“Unlike what opponents of the minimum wage increase want people to believe, the vast majority of minimum wage earners are not teenagers earning fun money,” Williams said. “They are men and women who perform work that we all depend upon – whether it is running a cash register, cooking or serving food, providing clerical support, answering phones, caring for our children or elderly, or providing maid or janitorial services.”

“It is time for Pennsylvania to again make the minimum wage a living wage,” Williams said.