Minimum Wage

THE FEDERAL government has decided that a minimum-wage increase is not a priority. With the recent defeat by Congress of two proposals to raise the minimum wage, it is imperative that Pennsylvania find a way to raise its minimum wage on a state or local level. This is exactly what Philadelphia Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. has done. The recent passage by City Council's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development of a proposal introduced by Councilman Goode requiring city-supported employers to pay at least 150 percent of the state minimum wage to its employees, is commendable.

About 500 people from various labor and unemployment coalitions rallied on the west steps of the Capitol yesterday to appeal to Congress to boost the $3.35-an-hour federal minimum wage. "We elect these people and they come up here and pay no attention to our needs," said Jim Carson, director of the People's Coalition in St. Louis. "They slip their pay raises through with no problems. " Labor subcommittees in both houses are considering legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage to $4.65 an hour over about three years.

Craig Garthwaite is director of research at the Employment Policies Institute As Gov. Rendell and state legislators consider a proposal for a $7 an hour minimum wage, they should also bear in mind Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's warning that such a move "prevents people who are at the early stages of their careers . . . from getting a foothold in the ladder of promotions. " Wage-hike proponents often argue that minimum-wage employees haven't had a raise since Congress last increased the national rate.

RE YOUR EDITORIAL on the minimum wage and the debate on whether it should be raised: I hear all the time about how raising the minimum wage will hurt the people it is intended to help. Why is it that when union members get a raise, when state legislators give themselves a pay raise in the middle of the night, federal officials vote themselves a raise, CEOs (think Exxon-Mobil) and all other workers get a raise, the economy and minimum-wage workers are not adversely affected? But when people living in poverty are given pay raises, the economy and these workers suffer?

Ask any worker earning the minimum wage if he or she would like a pay raise, and odds are good the answer will be yes. After all, at $3.35 an hour - $134 a week, $6,968 a year - the federal minimum wage isn't much. And because it hasn't been raised since January 1981, inflation has eroded its buying power by 30 percent. Ask the same worker if he or she would like to be fired or have work hours cut back, however, and the answer probably will be no. But the worker can't have the raise without risking the loss.

WHEN THE clock expired at the end of the Super Bowl, a lot of so-called experts turned out to be wrong. The game is played on the field, and that often has a funny way of defying ill-placed prediction. Overshadowed perhaps by football, but even more important to millions of Pennsylvanians, was the January debunking of forecasts by experts even more certain than football commentators. Two years ago, during an intense debate over Pennsylvania's eroding minimum wage, the big-business lobby and some misled lawmakers were touting the work of a Florida economist who had supposedly studied Pennsylvania's labor market and come to the conclusion that adjusting the minimum wage for inflation would be disastrous for low-wage workers.

STATE SEN. Tina Tartaglione is to be commended for her commitment to helping low-wage workers. But her plan to have government dictate to business that each year it must pay workers more, regardless of a business' ability to do so, would actually further limit hiring opportunities for these workers. Unfortunately, supporters of a minimum wage cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) fail to realize this because they refuse to acknowledge that the recent minimum-wage hike had any negative impact.

Officers of the Oxford Circle Civic Association urged members to attend a rally at state Sen. Hank Salvatore's office next Thursday to show support for a bill raising the minimum wage and to protest the senator's vote on the measure. Joan Somers, the association's director of community affairs, said Tuesday night that the state Senate recently voted 25-24 against raising Pennsylvania's minimum wage from $3.35 to $4.65 an hour over the next three years. She said that Salvatore voted against the measure, which already had passed in the House.

The big progressive issue of campaign 2000 was previewed in Washington state Nov. 3, but no one in the rest of the country noticed. By a 68 percent majority, voters approved an initiative that hikes the minimum wage to $6.50 an hour by 2000, and then - for the first time ever - indexes it to rise each year with the cost of living. If ever there was an idea whose time has come, this is it. Inflation has eroded the minimum wage to the point where even 1996's two-step federal "increase" to $5.15 has left that wage with less purchasing power than it had in the late 1970s.

By Mark Tyler and Thomas Higgins As an airport-lease agreement that will bind US Airways, the airport's major carrier, to a long-term contract is considered, Mayor Nutter and City Council should insist that Philadelphia's living-wage ordinance applies to the deal. By linking the ordinance and the agreement, which was introduced in Council last week and is expected to be heard before the Transportation and Utilities Committee Wednesday, the city would ensure that employers of city-contracted businesses are paid a family-sustaining minimum wage of at least 150 percent of the state's minimum wage - $10.88 an hour, plus benefits.

TRENTON - Legalizing same-sex marriage and increasing the minimum wage - two Democratic priorities this legislative session - continue to draw strong support from New Jersey residents, according to a new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. And although Republican Gov. Christie leads his most prominent challenger, State Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex), in his reelection bid, his popularity may not help GOP candidates in other races, said David Redlawsk, director of the poll and professor of political science at Rutgers University.

Three jobs are open at Rodon Group, the plastic-parts manufacturer in Hatfield. But CEO Michael Araten isn't sweating it. Rodon works with local community colleges to make sure students - the firm's prospective employees - get the math and computer skills they need to work at the company making plastic parts for products such as bed frames and machinery. "We're willing to look at non-traditional methods," Araten said. Companies across the country have been working short-handed because it's hard to find workers with the skills they need.

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week: House Streamlined employment programs. Voting 215-202, the House on Friday sent the Senate a Republican bill (HR 803) to consolidate 35 federal programs for job training, adult education and literacy education into a single, broad-based workforce program to be administered by the states as they see fit rather than by Washington. The bill is a five-year renewal of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)

IT REALLY angers me that there is still hunger in America, knowing that we are more than capable of feeding each and every citizen - but don't. As far as I'm concerned, access to healthy food should be an inalienable right. Don't you agree? Sadly, every day in these United States, 50 million people, including one in four children, are food insecure, which basically means that they're hungry and not sure when or from where their next meal is coming. The recent documentary "A Place at the Table" removes the veil on this hidden-in-plain-sight national disgrace.

President Obama has renewed talk of a higher minimum wage - he proposes $9 per hour instead of the current $7.25 federal minimum. Is it a good idea? These sites delve into the debate. States can set their own minimum wages, and most do, although if the state rate differs from the federal rate, the higher rate is the one that usually applies. The U.S. Department of Labor hosts an interactive map that shows the minimum wage in each state. New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for example, hold to the federal $7.25-per-hour rate.

Design-development assistance, press-release writing, pattern-making, phone-answering, even studio-cleaning. A minimum of a bachelor's degree is required for this internship at the Flotsam+Jetsam Design Studio in Fishtown. "An organized individual is essential. Efficient sewing ability is required," the posting on Craigslist said. "There will be a sewing test during the interview. " Compensation: "Non-pay. " At a Center City law practice, there's no coffee-fetching for the qualifying intern.

Maybe it's the U.S. Labor Department investigation into pay violations at Chickie's & Pete's. Or maybe it's the string of class-action lawsuits piling up in federal court against the chain of popular sports bars - suits alleging tip-skimming that could yield several million dollars in damages. Or maybe it's simply an employer tacking up new personnel policies and sending out several-thousand-dollar employee-refund checks to fix mistakes in the payroll system. Whatever the motive, Chickie's & Pete's owners are hustling to contain the fallout from recent lawsuits that have more than 60 former and current employees as plaintiffs.

ALTHOUGH SOME SEE President Obama's proposal to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour as a way to help people make ends meet, others see it as a way for people to lose jobs. Anthony Liuzzo, professor of business and economics at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., said many people who now make the minimum wage may find themselves unemployed if the wage is increased. "I think it will hurt the exact people it was intended to help," he said. "An employer will look hard at whether they can afford it. People who make the minimum wage will simply be terminated rather than get the higher salaries, especially young people.

TRENTON - New Jersey voters will get the last word on whether to increase the state's minimum wage $1 to $8.25. The Assembly gave final approval Thursday to a resolution putting the increase on the ballot in November and tying automatic annual adjustments to the Consumer Price Index. The Senate approved the resolution previously, so Thursday's vote ensured the question's place on the ballot in a gubernatorial election year. Gov. Christie vetoed legislation last month that would have increased the wage to $8.50 per hour and provided automatic yearly increases.