BETHLEHEM, Pa. — City Council has approved a resolution supporting a plan to increase in Pennsylvania's minimum wage to $11 an hour and more.
Council on June 17 voted to support a new amendment to The Minimum Wage Act of 1968.
If approved by state lawmakers, the minimum wage in Bethlehem in particular would jump to $11 and be increased incrementally each year thereafter as part of House Bill 1150, officials said Tuesday.
It also would later give the city the chance to set its own minimum wage.
The federal minimum wage was increased to $7.25 back in 2009.
More than 30 states have increased from that federal minimum since that time, including neighboring states.
The pending legislation plans to raise minimum wages to $15 in 20 of Pennsylvania's counties and to $10, $11 and $12 an hour in the rest, city officials said.
HB 1150 also would call for an annual cost-of-living adjustment calculated using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for Pennsylvania and the surrounding area.
'An ongoing fight'
“This has been an ongoing fight in Harrisburg to try to raise the minimum wage, but once again, it’s out there on the block,” Bethlehem Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith said.
Before withholdings, $7.25 per hour would have a 40-hour-a-week full-time worker making $1,160 monthly, “which we all know is not nearly enough to afford housing in Bethlehem, let alone utilities and food, et cetera,” Crampsie Smith said.
Potentially doubling that wage under the new legislation, and still not accounting for withholdings, would have workers dishing out more than 80% of their pay to make the median rent in Bethlehem: $1,885.
“Why it’s in particular relevant and important to voice our support at the city level is that this bill enables municipalities the power to enact their own minimum wages, provided it doesn’t go below what is set."Bethlehem City Councilwoman Kiera Wilhelm
Those workers would be considered “severely cost-burdened” households — in this case, paying more than half on housing expenses such as rent.
“Why it’s in particular relevant and important to voice our support at the city level is that this bill enables municipalities the power to enact their own minimum wages, provided it doesn’t go below what is set,” Councilwoman Kiera Wilhelm said.
Sponsored by state Rep. Roni Green of the 190th District in Philadelphia County, HB 1150 just passed through the House and was referred to the House Labor and Industry Committee in April.
It’s pending before state Senate lawmakers in the GOP-led chamber.
