Letters: Pa. overdue for a minumum-wage raise

ISSUE | MINIMUM WAGE

Overdue for a raise

After more than 10 years, it's time for Pennsylvania to raise the minimum wage.

The legislature voted on June 30, 2006, to raise the minimum wage to $6.25 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2007, and to $7.15 effective July 1, 2007. The wage increased to $7.25 in 2009 to match the federal rate.

Meanwhile, the cost of living has continued to go up, while many working people are stuck making poverty wages.

According to the Keystone Research Center, if we raised the minimum wage to $10.10, nearly 1.3 million people (23 percent of the state's resident workforce) would see their pay increase. And it's not just teenagers making pocket change. Eighty-seven percent of the workers who would get bigger paychecks are older than 20.

Pennsylvanians understand this. A recent Public Policy Polling survey showed that

74 percent of voters, including 54 percent of Republicans, say we should raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour.

Despite all this, the Republican leadership in Harrisburg has been standing in the way by refusing to hold a vote on minimum-wage legislation. After more than 10 years, it's time to do the right thing and raise the minimum wage.

|Adam Goldman, organizer, Philadelphia Unemployment Project, Philadelphia