Another Democrat joins the effort for a $15 an hour minimum wage.
Yesterday, Sen. Bob Casey said he is adding his name as a co-sponsor to the “Raise the Wage Act” which will raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. The bill, written by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has 30 other Democratic cosponsors now.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (@AP) — US Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania says he’s adding his name to the 30 fellow Democrats who are co-sponsoring legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
— Marc Levy (@timelywriter) February 26, 2019
“Workers deserve to be paid a wage that enables them to provide for themselves and their family,” Casey said in a statement. “I have long supported increasing the minimum wage and have cosponsored multiple bills that would do so. The longer we go without increasing the minimum wage, the bigger the increase we will need to make to restore its value.”
In recent years, Casey authored a bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020 and to index it to the annual change in median wages. Now, a majority of Democratic Senators have signed on to the effort for $15 an hour.
“I have spoken with many constituents in Pennsylvania about the need to move to a $15 minimum wage, and I am proud to join my colleagues in pushing for this bill to become law,” Casey said.
According to WITF, a similar bill in the U.S. House has 198 Democratic sponsors that include eight of the nine Democrats from Pennsylvania.
Last month, Gov. Tom Wolf made a call to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by July 1, 2019, while the rate gradually increases by 50 cents until it reaches $15 an hour in 2025. Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre) called $15 an hour “not reasonable,” but said a discussion about raising the minimum wage “needs to happen.”
The current minimum wage in PA is at $7.25 an hour, which is the federal minimum wage.
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One Response
It’s a moral outrage to see those members of our society who have no lobbyists, personal wealth that allows them to support candidates, no political power, live on the margins, live with little to no healthcare through employers, work multiple jobs for little pay and, to some, if the minimum wage is raised to help them all heck will break loose. It’s preposterous and appalling that people with tax breaks courtesy of President Trump or jobs that give them a good wage and healthcare cannot find it in their hearts to cut those on the lowest economic rung a break. Our society will be judged on how we treat the voiceless and, as far as the minimum wage goes, we are treating the voiceless quite badly.