Pennsylvania Worker Advocates Lobbying Harrisburg To Hike State's Minimum Wage
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Some of Pennsylvania's moderate Republican lawmakers are getting visits this week from advocates for low-income workers, urge them to support an increase in the state's minimum wage.
About fifty organizations are calling on state lawmakers to support an increase in the minimum wage. John Dodds, head of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, says there are at least three bills in the state legislature right now, already with widespread Democratic support.
"The legislation (calls for) $10.10 an hour, with a cost of living escalator" that would allow the minimum wage to keep up with inflation, he explains.
Dodds (at right in photo) says thirteen other states which have already raised their minimum wage all saw a hike in job creation. And he says that right now, Pennsylvania is 50th out of 50 states in creating new jobs.
"These are people who work every day and they're making very little money," he notes, "and it's really not what we should be aspiring to as a state: that people work hard and get nowhere."
Four Republican lawmakers who represent suburban Philadelphia communities will get visits later this week from the Raise the Wage PA campaign.
Gov. Tom Wolf says he supports an increase in Pennsylvania's minimum wage, which has been $7.25/hour since 2009.
