HUGHES REMINDS EMPLOYERS AND WORKERS OF MINIMUM WAGE HIKE 

HARRISBURG, July 1 – State Sen. Vincent Hughes is reminding workers and employers that the final step in Pennsylvania’s phased-in minimum wage takes place today.

The minimum wage rises to $7.15 for virtually all Pennsylvania workers after two years of gradual increases intended to give small business a chance to adjust.

“After years of sinking into poverty, low-income working families are seeing the benefits of fair wages,” Hughes said.

Still, the gradual minimum wage increases are barely staying ahead of rising fuel and food prices, Hughes said.

Hughes is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 682, which would tie the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index, as 10 other states have done.

“There is no effective minimum wage without an automatic adjustment for inflation,” Hughes said. “Day by day the floor keeps dropping on low-income workers and within a few years they will fall back below the federal poverty line. We have to preserve the value of work.”

Until today, businesses with 10 or fewer full-time employees were permitted to pay $6.65 per hour.  With today’s increase, all employees over 20 years of age must make $7.15 an hour.  The law allows employers to pay workers under 20 years old a “training wage” for 60 calendar days of employment.  The training wage is equivalent to the federal minimum wage, which is $5.85 per hour today and rises to $6.55 on July 24.

The training wage will expire in 2009, as the federal minimum wage rises to $7.25 per hour for all workers.

Under Pennsylvania’s minimum wage law, the state Department of Labor and Industry must report annually on the effect of minimum wage increases on the state’s economy and jobs.

This year’s report, released in January, showed overall job growth in Pennsylvania, with slight increases in the leisure and hospitality industries, and a slight decline in retail jobs.