HARRISBURG, Pa. – It was an honor to be an invited guest of Representative Patty Kim, a longtime champion of working people and raising the minimum wage in PA, to witness the House’s bipartisan passage of a minimum wage bill more than 13 years in the making. As the only Mid-Atlantic state still stuck at the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, Tuesday evening’s vote is the first step towards Pennsylvanians being guaranteed something closer to a living wage by 2026, and permanently indexed to annual inflation thereafter. House Bill 1500 will help hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, including the children of wage workers.
I look forward to the PA Senate passing this bill – just as they did in 2019 when the GOP-controlled Senate voted to raise the minimum wage – and then sending it to Governor Shapiro’s desk to be signed. I applaud this long overdue first step towards establishing a living wage in Pennsylvania, but note it is only the first step. We must continue to advocate for One Fair Wage for tipped workers and the end of preemption.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 20, 2023
Contact: Eric Leisure
Director of Strategic Communications
eric@newpaproject.org
(484) 639-5110
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The New Pennsylvania Project (NPP) is a voting rights organization with a year-round primary focus on voter registration, civic education and mobilization. NPP centers historically disenfranchised and often neglected Black, Indigenous and other people of color, immigrant communities and the youth in our work. Through civic engagement, we ensure all eligible voters feel compelled to exercise their freedom to vote in the Commonwealth.
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