HARRISBURG, Sept. 29, 2014 – Standing with the dozen eggs, loaf of bread and box of cereal she attempted to buy with the $7.25 Pennsylvania’s minimum-wage workers receive for 60 minutes of labor, state Sen. Judy Schwank today joined a statewide action campaign to urge an increase in the state’s base hourly rate.
Schwank said the $7.25 was not enough money to buy the three food staples.
“You know that you and I couldn’t make ends meet on $7.25 an hour, and our friends, relatives and neighbors cannot do it either,” Schwank told press conference attendees in the Capitol Rotunda today.
“A business whose plan works only on the exploitation of the labor of people who couldn’t find higher paying jobs is not a model that’s sustainable for our country nor is it sustainable for our commonwealth,” she said.
Schwank said she supports legislation, Senate Bill 1300, that would incrementally increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016 and tie future increases to inflation.
“As our neighbors go, we go as well. It’s important we make the effort to get the minimum wage bill passed in Pennsylvania, tie it to the Consumer Price Index so that we don’t have to wait for legislators to take action … and we can help solve this problem, once and for all,” Schwank said.
Schwank’s participation in today’s state Capitol press conference was part of Raise the Wage PA’s statewide action day, which included similar events in nine other Pennsylvania communities: Reading, Allentown, Altoona, Erie, Media, Morrisville, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and York.
Ten states and Washington D.C. have raised their minimum wage rates this year to something higher than Pennsylvania’s $7.25 an hour commitment. To date, 23 states and D.C. pay their front-line workers more than the federal minimum.
###
More information on Sen. Schwank is available on her website, Facebook and Twitter.