by Christin Brown | Enero 8, 2013 | News Releases
HARRISBURG, Jan. 8, 2013 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione, recently re-appointed as Democratic chair of the Senate Labor and Industry Committee, said today she will use the position to push for changes in Pennsylvania’s minimum wage law in order to prevent working parents from sinking into poverty.
“This is the committee where I’m comfortable and this is the committee where I have had great experience and success,” she said. “Making sure there are jobs for everyone who wants to work and making sure those jobs pay enough to put food on the table have been my main focus in the Senate and that will remain the same.”
The last time Pennsylvania passed a minimum wage adjustment, in 2006, it came after six years of effort over three sessions and three different bills, Tartaglione said.
“Obviously it takes more than public support, it takes a great deal of communication with colleagues and a concerted effort by all of those who believe in fair wages,” she said. “We’ve done it before and we will do it again.”
In the most recent Senate session, Tartaglione introduced a bill that would have tied the state’s minimum wage to inflation, as ten other states have done. She tried to have language from the bill inserted in another wage bill being considered by the Labor and Industry Committee, but the amendment was tabled, rather than receiving a vote.
“Everyone knows that the public overwhelmingly supports fair wages,” she said. “In the states where minimum wage calculators were put before voters – even red states – they were approved overwhelmingly. It’s just a matter a getting past the special interests.”
Tartaglione was the author of the state’s last minimum wage bill, which raised the state’s lowest wage from $5.15 to $7.15 in several steps. Since then, the federal minimum wage was increased to $7.25.
After the last increase, Tartaglione said, Pennsylvania’s poverty rate took a steep decline, only to gradually increase to a 20-year-high in 2010.
“Paying minimum wages that don’t keep pace with inflation puts more burden on government services, like food stamps and child care,” Tartaglione said. “Putting and inflation index on our minimum wage would decrease that burden and create a predictable base for employers.”
In addition to the Labor and Industry Committee, Tartaglione has been appointed to the Senate Rules and Executive Nominations Committee where, as Democratic Caucus Secretary, she helps guide the administration’s nominations through the Senate confirmation process.
She has also been named to the Law and Justice and State Government committees.
by Christin Brown | Octubre 19, 2011 | News Releases
HARRISBURG, Oct. 18, 2011 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione said today she will continue to push for an update to Pennsylvania’s minimum wage law, after a Senate committee voted to avoid a decision yesterday.
The Senate Labor and Industry committee tabled a Tartaglione amendment by that would have tied Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to the consumer price index, ensuring that thousands of working families would forever get off a see-saw of poverty.
“There is no issue that more clearly defines the line between the 99 percent and the one percent,” Tartaglione said. “Vast majorities of the public have supported inflation protections in the minimum wage despite heavy lobbying and spending by big business. It’s profit vs. poverty. It’s that simple.”
Tartaglione is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 235, which would apply an annual cost-of-living adjustment to the minimum wage, calculated by annually applying the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland area for the most recent twelve month-period. The bill is stuck in the Labor and Industry Committee as majority Republicans hope to avoid a vote.
Ten states have applied COLAs to their minimum wages, with half of them doing it through overwhelming support in ballot initiatives.
“The typical gloom-and-doom predictions about the minimum wage have all been debunked and voters are tired of hearing the business lobby say they can’t pay living wages,” Tartaglione said. “A properly adjusted minimum wage will keep working families from falling into poverty and dependence on government support. This is a move toward economic justice and smaller government.”
With the bill stalled in committee, Tartaglione attempted to implement its language through an amendment to another bill poised to move from the committee. The amendment was “tabled,” meaning it did not receive an up or down vote.
“I think this is not the time to tell working families that you’re siding with the CEOs” Tartaglione said. “I think they felt a changing wind and they ducked.”
Pennsylvania last adjusted its minimum wage in steps through 2006 and 2007. Since then, even moderate inflation has pushed a single worker with a child, lifted above the federal poverty line by the 2007 increase, back below the poverty line in 2011.
Tartaglione said she will continue to push for the bill or the amendment after the number of Pennsylvanians earning the minimum wage has jumped by 50 percent in the past year and the state’s poverty rate has hit a 20-year high.
“Working families are starting to understand what they’re up against,” Tartaglione said. “And they’re starting to fight back.”
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