To: Lisa Baker (PA-20)

Stop Holding Minimum Wage Legislation Hostage

We strongly urge that you ensure that minimum wage legislation be reported out of your committee immediately. We urge you to support a $10.10 minimum wage, including a cost of living index and one that includes tipped workers, as well. We also urge you to support elimination of local pre-emption to let our localities decide on minimum wage for their citizens.

Why is this important?

It is past time to raise the Pennsylvania minimum wage. 29 states, including every state surrounding Pennsylvania, have raised their minimum wages while our Legislature will not even vote on this issue.

A recent poll by Mercyhurst University, earlier this year, found that 66% of Pennsylvanians support a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour. Over 1.2 million PA workers will get a raise if such an increase were enacted and these funds would go right back into our local economies. Half of those workers are employed full time and 84% are over 20 years of age. A quarter of them are raising children on poverty wages.

Legislation to raise the minimum wage has been sitting in the house and Senate Labor and Industry Committees since January. The will of our citizens and the needs of Pennsylvania’s low wage workers require that legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 be moved onto the floor immediately.

Please tell Labor and Industry Committee Chairs Senator Lisa Baker
and Rep. Mauree Gingrich "We strongly urge that you ensure that minimum wage legislation be reported out of your committee immediately. We urge you to support a $10.10 minimum wage, including a cost of living index and one that includes tipped workers, as well. We also urge you to support elimination of local pre-emption to let our localities decide on minimum wage for their citizens."