Minimum wage proposals fall below poverty line
Gov. Tom Wolf has been facing harsh criticism from Republican lawmakers and Pennsylvania business group leaders for a proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour.
Although many states have already raised their minimum wage above the federal $7.25 level, Wolf’s proposal to $12 an hour would put Pennsylvania among one of the highest wage levels in the nation.
In addition, Wolf is asking for annual 50-cent increases to bring the state minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2025.
The $15 an hour benchmark is also the goal of congressional Democrats seeking to raise the federal hourly minimum. Sen. Bob Casey last week added his support to the Senate minimum wage bill authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders and backed by 30 fellow Democrats.
A similar bill in the House of Representatives is sponsored by 198 Democrats, including eight from Pennsylvania.
In Harrisburg, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, suggested Republicans might be willing to back a minimum wage increase but not at the level Wolf is proposing. Corman said Wolf’s plan is not worth discussing.
Pennsylvania has been at the $7.25 federal minimum since 2009, while most states have raised their minimums.
Neighboring New Jersey and New York have joined Illinois, California, and Massachusetts, as well as the District of Columbia, to put their minimum wages on a path to reach $15 an hour.
Business groups have traditionally held that increases in minimum wage jeopardize small business and kill jobs growth.
At the other end of the spectrum, individuals earning minimum wage fall below federal poverty guidelines, and the increases proposed show that most families will not earn a living wage at $15 an hour.
According to “The Living Wage Calculator” devised by Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier at MIT, the income for a family of four with two working adults and two children would need to be $16.14 an hour before taxes in order to achieve a living wage.
At the current minimum wage, those adults would need to nearly four full-time jobs to make enough for basic needs for a family of four. A single parent with two children would need to work 139 hours per week — more hours than there are in a 5-day week – to meet basic needs at $7.25 an hour.
The income needed to pay for adequate food, housing, clothing, transportation and other basics eludes many working families. Instead, they rely on food stamps, subsidized housing and income from second or third jobs.
The situation exists across all family sizes and in all parts of the nation, although it is worse in areas of high cost of living.
The failure of wages to provide a living wage is why all of Pottstown children qualify for free and reduced lunch. It is why poverty is rampant in Chester and Norristown, despite news that plenty of jobs exist in Delaware and Montgomery counties.
It is why Section 8 housing persists and why children go hungry even in Chester County, the wealthiest county in Pennsylvania.
The increases in minimum wage being debated by lawmakers will not get many families above the poverty threshold, much less to a living wage.
A $10 an hour job nets $20,800 a year before taxes, below the federal poverty guideline of $21,330 for a family of three. At $12 an hour, the $24,960 in earnings is below poverty level for a family of four.
And what some consider an exorbitant $15 an hour puts a family of four just $1,000 a year above poverty level.
Wolf’s proposal is modest when compared to what it costs Pennsylvania families to own homes and put food on the table.
It’s been 10 years since Pennsylvania’s lowest paid earners got a raise. It’s time to mandate pay that not only brings families out of poverty but gives them an income to live on.
In a nation that offers its best baseball players $330 million-dollar contracts and pays entertainers and CEOs billions, a poverty-level minimum wage doesn’t seem too much to expect for a working family.
It’s time to catch up.