by Christin Brown | February 9, 2016 | Minimum Wage, News Releases
HARRISBURG, Feb. 9, 2016 – Despite the financial challenges facing Pennsylvania due to Republican intransigence, the commonwealth’s leading advocate for a fairer minimum wage said she is pleased that Gov. Tom Wolf is calling for a $10.15 base hourly rate.
“The tunnel vision that has led Pennsylvania to a fiscal cliff has also prevented our frontline workers from receiving a pay raise for the past seven years,” Sen. Christine Tartaglione said following the governor’s annual budget address today.
“But $10.15 an hour is the best indication that our fight for a fair minimum wage will continue in earnest.”
Sen. Tartaglione led the charge to get Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $7.15 an hour in 2006. The state’s base hourly pay rate ticked up to its current level, $7.25 an hour, when the federal government approved that wage in 2009.
The Philadelphia Democrat’s current legislation, Senate Bill 195, move Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. Her Senate Bill 196 would hike the tipped minimum wage to 70 percent of the regular rate (or $3.95 an hour, based on a $10.10 minimum wage).
“More than a million workers will get a pay raise, countless employers will have more focused employees, and government subsidies will fall when the Republican leadership gets out of the way and finally allows a vote on proposals to increase the minimum wage,” Tartaglione said. “These increases are overdue. We must make this a priority.”
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Contact: Mark Shade
mshade@pasenate.com
by Christin Brown | March 10, 2015 | News Releases
PHILADELPHIA, March 10, 2015 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione will continue her push to increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage tomorrow when the House Democratic Policy Committee convenes a hearing at Temple University.
Tartaglione has proposed a package of legislation that would increase the minimum wage to $10.10 by Jan. 1 (Senate Bill 195), increase the tipped minimum wage to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage (SB 196), and add an annual cost-of-living increase (SB 197).
The committee is meeting at the request of Philadelphia Democratic Rep. Leslie Acosta.
Media coverage is invited.
WHAT: Sen. Tartaglione to participate in minimum wage public hearing
WHEN: 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 11
WHERE: Room 301-D, Morgan Hall, Temple University, 1601 N. Broad St., Philadelphia
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by Christin Brown | March 4, 2015 | News Releases
HARRISBURG, March 4, 2015 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today applauded Gov. Tom Wolf for his bold and promising 2015-2016 budget proposal.
She said his willingness to push a higher minimum wage, his belief in proper education funding, his support of her idea to close the Delaware loophole, and ideas to help relieve the tax burden of Philadelphians are welcomed, overdue efforts.
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“For four years, the Republican in the governor’s office said he couldn’t afford to invest new dollars in education, couldn’t support people who need government help, and couldn’t afford to ask businesses to pay their minimum wage workers more than $7.25 an hour,” Tartaglione said. “But he could afford to protect the natural gas industry and corporate partners, and Pennsylvania has suffered because of that.”
Sen. Tartaglione said she is glad that the governor is reiterating his support of a $10.10 an hour minimum wage, as well as future minimum wage increases that are tied to a cost-of-living index.
Tartaglione has proposed Senate Bill 195 to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 by Jan. 1, 2016. Senate Bill 196 would eventually set the tipped minimum wage to 70 percent of the regular base hourly rate.
A recent study by the Keystone Research Center said an increase to $10.10 would benefit more base hourly wage earners than similar bills that would up the minimum much less (1.27 million Pennsylvanians to 404,000). It also said an increase to $10.10 would generate 6,000 new jobs; or nearly nine times more than an increase to $8.75.
Currently, a parent who works a full-time minimum-wage job and has two children is below the federal poverty line.
The Philadelphia Democrat said she is also pleased by the governor’s call to restore the $1 billion that the Corbett administration stripped from basic and higher education, and his call to finally close the Delaware loophole.
The Delaware loophole gives Pennsylvania businesses the opportunity to incorporate in Delaware so they can avoid paying PA corporate income taxes. Tartaglione’s Senate Bill 274 would close the Delaware loophole. It is awaiting action in the Senate Finance Committee.
Seventy percent of the corporations that operate in the commonwealth do not pay taxes because of the loophole, Tartaglione said. The New York Times reported that Delaware collected $860 million from absentee corporations operating in other American states in 2011, including Pennsylvania.
If the governor’s idea is accepted, closing the loophole would help the commonwealth reduce the corporate net income tax rate by 40 percent on Jan. 1 and by 50 percent over the next three years.
“Gov. Wolf’s idea to slash the CNI from 9.99 percent to 5.99 percent will more than make up for the money corporations are avoiding by formally organizing in a small post office box in Delaware,” Tartaglione said.
The senator said Pennsylvanians should accept the governor’s first budget proposal as a significant – and necessary – change in how the commonwealth governs and pays for government.
“Bad thinking and insufficient leadership got us into the sorry financial situation we are in,” she said. “We cannot accept the same approach in finding a way out. We must work on the Wolf budget and make sure it is signed into law no later than June 30.
“This is promising to be a tough battle, however, as Republicans who are in the majority in the House and Senate are already voicing their opposition,” Tartaglione said.
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by Christin Brown | January 27, 2015 | News Releases
HARRISBURG, Jan. 27, 2015 – Pennsylvania’s frontline workers who are languishing with poverty-level wages would finally be paid more under new minimum wage legislation that state Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione announced today.
The five-bill proposal would increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016 and make the state’s tipped minimum 70 percent of the regular base hourly rate. After the increase to $10.10, Sen. Tartaglione’s proposal would tie future increases to the rate of inflation.
“Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeast that has not listened to the cries of tens of thousands of hardworking residents who are suffering because prices have increased but their paychecks have not for six long years,” Tartaglione said. “We must agree to require businesses to pay workers higher wages not because other states have done it; we must agree to more because it is the right thing to do for them, for taxpayers, and the economy.”
Tartaglione’s Senate Bill 195 would increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $8.67 an hour by July 1 and $10.10 an hour by Jan. 1, 2016.
The tipped minimum wage, covered by Senate Bill 196, would increase from $2.83 an hour to $3.95 an hour on July 1, and would equal 70 percent of the regular minimum at the start of 2016.
“More than 87,000 Pennsylvanians receive just $7.25 for each 60 minutes they work,” Tartaglione said. “It’s hard for many minimum wage workers to buy the things their employers are selling because they don’t have the money to pay for other important things, like electricity.”
Nearly twice as many workers (157,000), the senator said, receive the tipped minimum wage.
The other three bills in Sen. Tartaglione’s minimum wage package include:
- Senate Bill 197, which would provide annual cost-of-living increases to the minimum wage based on the Consumer Price Index,
- Senate Bill 198, which would modernize the state wage payment and collection law to increase recordkeeping requirements for employers and enforcement duties of the state Department of Labor & Industry. It would also allow employees to receive back wages and two times those wages in damages, and
- Senate Bill 199, which would prohibit employers from deducting bank fees or charges from employee tips when a customer pays their bill with a credit card.
According to a Wall Street Journal analysis last December of federal consumer spending statistics between 2007 and 2013, middle class Americans had to adjust for a 24-percent increase in healthcare costs, 26-percent higher rent bills and 12.5 percent more for food.
“Unfortunately, a minimum wage earner doesn’t need a study to confirm that most everything for them costs too much money,” Tartaglione said. “We need a higher minimum wage now because the cost of not making this a requirement will cause more harm.”
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by Christin Brown | January 6, 2015 | News Releases
HARRISBRUG, Jan. 6, 2015 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today took the oath of office today for her sixth term in the Pennsylvania General Assembly and promised to continue her fight for better policies that promote economic development, raise the minimum wage, and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
“Many of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states increased their minimum wage rates Jan. 1, which means we now are the only ones paying substandard, poverty-level stipends,” Tartaglione said following her oath of office.
“I am looking forward to working with the newly elected Republican leadership in the Senate and Gov. Tom Wolf to make sure Pennsylvania finally increases the minimum wage this year,” she said.
Tartaglione – who was accompanied by her mother, Margaret Tartaglione – joined other Senate Democrats in the swearing-in ceremony who were newly elected or re-elected in the November General Election.
“Many elected officials today said they are promising to work openly and together to solve Pennsylvania’s problems and improve life in this great state for everyone. I am encouraged by this and pledge to work at least as cooperatively,” Tartaglione said.
This is the beginning of Tartaglione’s sixth term in the Senate. She was first elected to the chamber in 1995.
For the 2015-2016 legislative session, Sen. Tartaglione has agreed to co-sponsor bills dealing with gun violence, people with disabilities, credit card deductions for tipped wage earners, and delivering heart and lung benefits to paramedics.
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by Christin Brown | December 3, 2014 | News Releases
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 3, 2014 – As the Corbett administration continued its subterfuge during its final mid-year budget briefing, state Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today said Pennsylvania would generate new revenue if it finally approved a minimum wage increase.
“Other state economies that are doing a better job recovering from the recession have one thing in common,” Tartaglione said. “They have increased their minimum wage rates.
“Raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from its poverty-level $7.25 an hour to at least $10.10 an hour by 2016 will not completely close Gov. Corbett’s new $2 billion deficit, nor will it completely change the opinion of those who set our credit rating. It also will not make paying for basic education a more equitable system.
“Raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage will, however, help employers keep and hire more productive workers. It will put more money in workers’ pockets and it will deliver more income tax revenue for the Corbett-decimated economy,” the senator said.
No proposal to increase the minimum wage was voted out of committee during the 2013-2014 legislative session, including Sen. Tartaglione’s proposals to incrementally increase the base hourly rate from $7.25 to $10.10 by 2016 and to make the tipped minimum wage 70 percent of the regular minimum.
Tartaglione said she will re-introduce proposals to increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage when the legislature opens its new session in January.
“We need a higher minimum wage because Pennsylvania workers need it to survive and to be less dependent on social services,” Tartaglione said.
Ten states and Washington D.C. increased their minimum wage rates in 2014, including Delaware and Maryland.
Minimum wages will increase in nine states Jan. 1, including in New Jersey and Ohio.
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by Christin Brown | September 29, 2014 | News Releases
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 29, 2014 – Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione, advocates and members of Raise the Wage PA today marched to Gov. Tom Corbett’s office here to finally urge his endorsement of legislation that would increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
Raise the Wage PA’s “statewide action day” featured similar rallies in nine other cities.
Sen. Tartaglione’s Senate Bill 1300 would incrementally increase the commonwealth’s minimum from $7.25 to $10.10. Her companion proposal, Senate Bill 1099, would increase the tipped minimum wage to 70 percent of the regular base hourly rate.
“We continue our fight because Pennsylvania is falling behind dozens of other states that have already agreed that raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do,” Tartaglione said today. “Our front-line workers have not been able to sustain themselves on $7.25 an hour for years.
“Mandating that they receive a fairer $10.10 an hour would be good for them and it would be good for their employers and their communities. Most studies show that a more livable minimum wage will help more than it will hurt,” she said.
Gov. Corbett and leading Republican lawmakers have so far refused to consider her proposals and those presented by other House and Senate members.
Meanwhile, 10 states and Washington D.C. raised their minimum wage rates this year to bring the total count of states with higher base hourly wages to 23 plus D.C.
As Tartaglione and Raise the Wage PA were marching today from Fergie’s Pub to the governor’s office, rallies in support of a higher minimum wage were happening – or had happened – in Allentown, Altoona, Erie, Harrisburg, Media, Morrisville, Pittsburgh, Reading and York.
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by Christin Brown | March 18, 2014 | News Releases
HARRISBURG, March 18, 2014 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione said today she will replace her proposal to increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $ 9 an hour with a new bill that would increase it to $10.10 by 2016.
Minimum wage increases under Senate Bill 1300 would be tied to inflation once the base hourly rate hits $10.10.
“A rising tide lifts all boats,” Sen. Tartaglione said during a rally to increase the minimum wage with “Raise the Wage PA.” “Pennsylvania’s hardworking women and men must have a fairer shake when it comes to paydays. They are drowning today with the paltry $7.25 they make each hour.
“To the critics who say an increase in the minimum wage will hurt the economy: you are wrong. Studies and history show that increases in the minimum have very little to no negative impact on the economy,” she said.
Citing a University of California-Berkeley study released last week, Sen. Tartaglione said the evidence in that review shows increases in the base hourly rate might mean small rises in the prices of products but it also sparks higher worker productivity and a more positive impact on businesses.
While other state lawmakers have proposed bills to provide a higher minimum, Tartaglione said she believes an incremental increase to $10.10 an hour is the more reasonable compromise. However, the senator’s new proposal would allow municipalities that have a higher cost-of-living to consider a higher minimum wage.
“We must act now to make sure people who are working 60-to-80-hour weeks and crazy hours are still not stuck in poverty once they are paid,” Tartaglione said. “And, once this becomes law, we must make sure minimum wage workers are covered if inflation affects their buying power.”
“Increasing the minimum wage benefits everyone,” she said.
In addition to the higher minimum wage, Tartaglione said SB 1300 would increase the fines and penalties for companies that violate the new law, once adopted. It would also provide for increased enforcement of the state’s minimum wage act.
The Philadelphia Democrat had proposed a legislative package to increase Pennsylvania’s minimum from $7.25 to $9/hour (SB 858) and the tipped minimum from $2.83/hour to 70 percent of the regular minimum. While her latest proposal would increase the minimum wage even further, she said she continues to support raising the tipped wage to 70 percent of the minimum.
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