Activists March On Pennsylvania Capitol Calling For Minimum Wage Increase

Date: February 12, 2015

Group Seeks Increase To $10.10 An Hour

On Monday, a group of perhaps 200 people marched
on Pennsylvania’s Capitol Complex calling for a sharp increase in the state
minimum wage. The group, which included Lt. Gov. Michael Stack (D) and other
politicians, called for increasing the wage from its current $7.25 an hour to
$10.10.

What This Means Going Forward:

There
are a number of proposals in the Pennsylvania state legislature to raise the
minimum wage. On one hand, Rep. Patty Kim (D) has a bill that would raise the
rate to $9 in 2016 and tie it to inflation after that. Rep. Mark Cohen (D) has
a bill that would ultimately raise the wage to $11.50 and also adjust it for
the cost of living each year. On the other side of the aisle, state Sen. Scott
Wagner (R) has a bill to raise the minimum to $8.75 an hour, saying that $10.10
is too high. With the governor backing an increase, there is at least some potential
for a raise to be enacted in the near future.

What This Means For Small Business:

With the economy not yet recovered from effects of the Great Recession,
anything that forces new costs on a small business is burdensome. This is
particularly true in Pennsylvania, which has badly lagged much of the nation in
job creation. During 2014, the state added only 40,000 net jobs, an increase in
employment of merely 0.70 percent.

Additional Reading:

The NFIB reported
on Pennsylvania’s jobs numbers, while the Harrisburg
(PA) Patriot-News
,
WPMT-TV, WGAL-TV and WITF-TV report on the minimum wage issue.

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