Act now to help working poor
By: Sen. Vincent Hughes  

          More than six months before Hurricane Katrina sent energy prices soaring and the poor scrambling for help, 80 percent of Pennsylvanians supported an adjustment of the state’s minimum wage to make up for years of inflation.

          If the vast majority of Pennsylvanians felt that way last spring, imagine what the number would be today as home heating prices send families from the brink of poverty to the bread line.

          With the public and the state’s governor so overwhelmingly supportive, and with all surrounding states having taken action, there is tremendous pressure to act now in an effort to right the wrong being perpetrated on the working poor. 

          And, yet, astoundingly, on November 21, on the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate, Republican Leader David Brightbill said he would not allow the Senate to vote on a bill to gradually raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage.  Even when reminded that the Senate was scheduled to be in session for only 7 days before the end of the year, Senator Brightbill expressed that it was not his intention and he had no plans to call the Senate to vote on the matter.

          When asked if it was appropriate that someone could work a 40-hour-work week and still earn $2,000 a year below the federal poverty level, Brightbill said: “The answer is that there may be times that that’s appropriate. There are different kinds of workers in different kinds of settings.

          The fact is that the last time the minimum wage was adjusted, in 1997, a single mom with two kids earning the minimum wage was safely above the federal poverty level. 

          Because the poverty level is adjusted for inflation – and the minimum wage is not – that same family is now barely surviving at $2,000 below the poverty level, its buying power robbed by the rising cost of food, clothes and, now, energy.

          Among other spurious arguments, opponents of a fair minimum wage argue that the majority of minimum wage earners are not running households with that one income.  That, of course, is like saying that the majority of Pennsylvanians have health insurance so we can ignore those that don’t.

          The bottom line is that there are 12,000 homes in Pennsylvania where someone is working 40 hours a week and living in poverty.  Tens of thousands of children are living in these homes.

          Pennsylvanians want action.  I have no doubt that if a vote were allowed to boost the minimum wage it would pass. 

          How can we embrace the spirit of the season, sing the carols, light the candles, gather the family, and enjoy our blessings without taking one simple step-increase the minimum wage.