Pennsylvania's acting L&I secretary calls for minimum wage increase
Raise minimum wage to $12 an hour with a path to $15, Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier says
Updated: 5:23 PM EDT Apr 20, 2021
every worker in pennsylvania deserves to earn a living wage, especially those who put themselves in harm's way to protect us. Too many of our health care and essential workers are earning poverty wages while putting themselves at risk to keep our society running. These workers are struggling to make ends meet to keep a roof over the heads of their families and put food on the table while working hard to keep pennsylvanians safe and comfortable. They continued going to jobs even when they were afraid because they knew their clients needed them and their jobs couldn't be done remotely. And while we've done a lot to thank these workers through our words, what they really need is for us to raise the minimum wage and keep them from worrying about how to pay their bills. One fair wage set at $15 an hour, would benefit 18 of health care and social assistance workers. These workers do not deserve to struggle. They deserve to be paid enough to allow them to focus on the physically mentally and emotionally exhausting task of caring for other people. Governor Tom Wolf is proposing a $12 minimum wage with a pathway to $15 by 2027. This will boost the incomes of more than 1.1 million Pennsylvania workers, including many Pennsylvanians who work in frontline healthcare jobs such as home health workers and nursing assistance. These Pennsylvanians could earn more for the same work they do now and the other 20 states that have already increased their minimum wage, but we need them here, we have Pennsylvanians who need their care, and these jobs cannot be replaced with automation. Increasing our minimum wage will help keep these workers in the commonwealth, so we have people to care for us and our loved ones when we need it. We cannot let this crisis continue. We need to raise our minimum wage now and allow hardworking pennsylvanians the dignity of providing for themselves. And frankly, we cannot let pennsylvanians who put themselves at risk of contracting covid 19 to support our vulnerable loved ones, be paid so little that they live on the verge of becoming homeless. They're worth more than 7 25 an hour. They're worth a living wage. And that's $12 an hour. Governor Wolf and I will continue fighting for these healthcare heroes to have a living wage of $12 an hour with a pathway to $15 an hour. It's time to give every hardworking Pennsylvania a true living wage. It's time to raise the wage to $12 an hour. Thank you. I will now turn things over to representative Mullins. Thank you. Secretary for such appropriate, uh, an important remarks. Uh, and I'd like to thank constituent, uh, and real life hero Donna Tetreault from our Northeast pennsylvania area home healthcare worker as you mentioned. Um, this is, uh, as I mentioned, these are real life heroes who are living and working and walking among us and the best way for policymakers here in Harrisburg, where I'm sitting right now to honor their heroism, everything they've done day in and day out before Covid, long before Covid, and then, especially through the covid prices is to ensure that we are respecting them, their profession, their passion, their calling for caring for people by raising the minimum wage. Um, these individuals did not go into these professions. They did not follow their passions for caring for people to get wealthy to get rich. They went into it because it is in their bones, it is in their heart to care for people. That's just how they're wired. And I'm so proud to represent so many of them in my district and understand how many healthcare heroes we have, living in our in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. So I'm proud to stand here with fellow legislator from northeastern pennsylvania, Representative marty Flynn with you secretary uh and with my constituents and someone I look up to mr Camacho from back home um to say uh it's long past time to honor their heroism by raising the minimum wage and making their uh making their contributions uh to area families and individuals worth it. This is the best way that we can prove that how much we value them because at a certain point everyone in everyone on this call will need some sort of service or care or comfort from any number of these individuals. So let's remember that as we head into the upcoming budget debate and I thank everyone for their time and I appreciate the opportunity to participate. All right thank you. Representative Mullins and now we will go to Representative Flynn if he's ready. Uh He's still on the road. I'm tom will be his chief of staff and and Representative Flynn and I have have talked quite a bit about this over the last 8.5 years and and it's it's crazy that in this this time 8.5 years we've gone nowhere. We've we've gone nowhere and mr. Castro and and all of you on this call today uh understanding or sympathetic to that. It's it's quite frankly it's ludicrous. We look at 7 25 an hour. Every single neighboring state has a higher minimum wage than we do. And and and and to be clear what we're talking about raising the minimum wage. We're not talking about a sudden increase to $15 per hour tomorrow, but rather gradual increase over an extended period of time that they will move our Children that are getting these minimum wage rates are our friends, our neighbors, and even in many of our cases our grandparents moving them to a more livable minimum wage and let's not kid ourselves, The perpetuation of a $7.25 wage is sustaining a welfare state that we could never have imagined. By increasing the minimum wage to $15. A network, we will reduce the number of low-income families that rely on government aid. And these improved incomes would position many workers and their families to no longer qualify or need public assistance programs. It's a common sense, economic sense and and and uh Representative Flynn shared with me a report by the Economic Policy Institute of Progressive think tank. And in that report they found that by increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, just $15 an hour and eliminating the tipped minimum wage by 2025 with three up, three up $13 billion to $30 billion in taxpayer revenue annually. I realized I'm, I'm preaching to the choir on behalf of representative fun. But uh, let's, let's just make it loud and make it wide. All right, thank you for that. And now we'll hand it over to dominate cocoa for some quick remarks. Hello, good afternoon guys. Hi, my name is Dominic retro from lackawanna County is, I'm honored to be with you guys. I just wanted to share a little bit about me, my background, I've been taking care of my mom or several years now, several, several years, seven plus years now and probably for the last year, year and five months, haven't been any kind of wage to um, you know, to, to help maintain take care of my mother and not to let her go into a nursing home. And when me and my mom first had this conversation, you know, years ago, I promised her and she asked me do not to let her go into a nursing home and for me to continue to take care of her as she was told me this morning because I was talking to my mom and part I was doing this speech for the workers, you know, especially for all those my mouth, co workers that are struggling right now. I'm a little emotional right now because my mom told me to take care of her in her golden ages. You know, we shouldn't have, you shouldn't have to bring up talk to your mom about taking care of her and her golden years versus her going into a nursing home. And that's just one thing whether whether I'm going to get paid or whether I'm not going to get paid money or no money, I'm still going to be doing what I'm doing. Uh if that's just the way I am, and that's just the way I'm gonna be, and um a wage increase would definitely, definitely, definitely help us. I would help all of them. And I apologize. I'm not really the best that speaking, but um, it's coming from the heart and um I'm just going to continue to do this. I love doing it. That makes you happy I got originally. All right, thank you for those, those comments. Um Now, we will open up to questions. If you have a question. If you could type your name and outlet into the box in your lower right hand corner of your screen, we'll just go through them in order. So if anybody has a question, go ahead and pop your name in there. All right. It looks like we have our first question here from W. B. N. G. Um Hi, can you guys hear me? Yep, Go ahead. Hi, I've spoken to uh some business owners, small business owners specifically uh in the northern part of the state, some of the rural areas and there are concerns that a raise of Minimum wage to $12 an hour, which is a pretty significant jump from 725 could put some of those businesses in jeopardy. Um Is there any concern especially coming off of a year where so many of those small businesses and restaurants were kind of decimated economically by the pandemic? Um I'll feel this. Thank you. Um Thank you for your question. I you know, I know it's a really difficult subject to broach, especially, you know, with business owners and coming off the year of covid 19 and and the out, you know, the falling out of the pandemic. However, you know, I think it's also important to remember that raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour, uh you know, actually creates a good workforce for some of these small businesses and it puts money in their pockets and it helps them spend that money in the local economy, even at where they work. So I think there's a lot of positives that outweigh the negatives. The more money we can put into the pockets of these workers, the better it is for everyone, especially businesses in our local economies. I think it's simply worth adding to the secretary is very valid points that as we see and observe an economic recovery across the country. That that it should that this phased increase of the minimum wage should coincide with that broader economic recovery limiting limiting the economic impact. Yeah, Thank you. All right. So now we'll move to joe naps at the tribune review joe if you could not meet yourself. Okay. All right. I think we can hear you now. You've repeated yourself. I'm sorry. There you go. Any estimate on the number of health care workers who might be receiving the minimum wage? I know we've talked to some nursing home workers and they do because of the competition they received closer to $10 an hour. Uh I don't know if that's if you have any estimates on that. Um we we can certainly provide that information I think, you know, and you you raised a good point. You know, many of these people are earning what we like to turn near minimum wage. However, you know, even $10 an hour is still below the living wage for a single individual living on their own. So, um, you know, raising that individual to $12 an hour still has an impact, a significant impact on their lives. So, Um, you know, while while $10 an hour might be higher than the minimum wage, raising it to 12 would still have an impact on those individuals. All right, thank you, joe. Um Sanel moved a christian smith with the center square. Hi, secretary, and thank you for doing this. Uh, you kind of touched on it just in the last question. But there are other proposals floating out there to raise the minimum wage. The one that I'm thinking of is Central Auckland in the Senate, that says let's raise the wage to $10 an hour plus, you know, Increases based on economic indicators in the future. And I hear you saying that $10 an hour would not be enough. Is that is that what you're saying that we have to go to 12? Mhm. Thank you for your question, kristen and you know, I think, I think what's important to remember, especially when frankly, you know, I'm just happy that this is getting acknowledgement from other legislators, especially on the other side of the aisle. Um you know, really, even having opening to the discussion is great, I believe for raising the minimum wage, While $10 an hour isn't necessarily where we believe it should be at. Um it's still great that there is discussion over raising the minimum wage from the Abhorrent 725 an hour. Thank you. All right. And so if there's anybody else with questions, if you could just pop your name and outlet into the chat box now, um it looks like bob mayo has a question. Uh Go ahead. Yes. Um There's a reference earlier to what the minimum wage situation is in states surrounding pennsylvania. Can any of you provide some additional detail on how pennsylvania compares and what if anything that says as to the viability of higher minimum wage for small businesses just across the border uh from pennsylvania businesses, their own counterparts. Unless Representative Mullins or Representative Flynn's office would like to weigh in. Um That's that's certainly information I'm having I wouldn't I hate to give you uh inaccurate information if you wouldn't mind putting your contact information Mr Mayo in the chat will be able to fashion you with that. But I, you know, anecdotally. Of course it's it is uh it is a fact that we flag well fully behind our surrounding states. You know, and I'd even follow up with, I think that there are other states that are on a pathway to $12 or $15 an hour that surround us. So, um you know, I don't think that this this uh this legislation that we're proposing is out of the out of the realm of our region. It's it's certainly in line with with what other states are doing in our region. Uh and and and uh well, we'll certainly get back to you with with with that information and and uh real quick to our friends at W. B. N. G. Uh expressing about the concerns of of bumping that up for a lot of these small businesses representative Flynn started off as a bus boy, a bar back, a waiter and bartender eventually owned his own restaurant. And bar is certainly where the challenges, particularly in that industry and, and it, it is difficult, but uh, in moving it up, it's, you know, we think about 7 25 an hour comes out to $290 a week, $290 a week. Uh, It's, it's, it's something that you think now that, that, that maybe that's what the paper boy is making and it's just with all due respect, just not fair to those people that are working so hard, trying to make ends meet and, and when you figure $290 a week before State and federal taxes being taken up, before local taxes being taken out, before social security taxes being taken out before healthcare deduction is being taken out and, and, and anything else that comes out of your check every week, getting it up to that $10 an hour, $12 an hour ideally for now. Uh Not not only helps us to to sustain those families, those individuals, but also for the employer. It's important to note that for for them oftentimes one of the higher costs of doing business is is having to replace and retrain workers and the ability to pay a little bit more for them and not have to deal with retraining and hiring new employees is a huge benefit in and of itself. Sorry, I think it's worth mentioning what Mr Sutro had mentioned in the in the chat here, simply for the sake of the of the broadcast here, that it should be $12, especially when healthcare workers like him have to buy their own PPE equipment uh and and have those expenses to Mr Welby's point that he just made in Representative Flynn's office. Uh There's a lot of uh add on things that you have to factor in in that wage. That that minimum wage whatever it ends up being has to has to cover and get stretched over. And you know what? Representative Mullins? I'm glad you raised the point that Dominic raised in the chat feature but he also mentioned health care. I mean it's unfortunate. I mean how can someone afford healthcare making minimum wage or near minimum wage? So You know we owe it to these folks these essential workers to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour to start and eventually to $15 an hour so that they can afford the basic necessities such as health care. I'm Dominic did you want to speak to that? Yes I wanted to I wanted to speak to adam. I don't I have home health care workers. Um I think you should definitely have some type of health insurance because I don't have any kind of health insurance right now. Um, you know, I definitely think they need that, you know, health care insurance. I don't have any right now. And I'm not, I'm not I'm not preaching to the choir or anything. I just think, I don't think, you know, for the work, I'm doing healthcare. Having health care shouldn't be something I have, you know, in our, you know, have to really there now some pros and cons a lot of that. Everybody should have health care insurance. Alright, stomach. Um, robert tom Covic is asking where where in lackawanna, how do you live? And what organization do you work for? Public partnership? And I live in lackawanna economy granted me. All right, thank you. Um, does anyone have any other questions for any of our speakers today? All right. Um, if not, then I will hand things back over to the secretary barrier to see if she has any parting remarks. I have no. I had one of those things. Okay, Go ahead. I just had one of the one other thing. Another another reason why I would like to see the increase from up to $12. So I don't I don't have to put in so many hours in the day. I don't have to put in. I don't have to put in long hours, you know, another thing I want dead. Um, I dropped out of college to move back in with my mother, you know, because their health that's so bad. And do I regret doing it? Absolutely not. I do it again. All right. Thank you for that. And um, I'm sorry. There's one more question here. Before I hand things back to acting secretary barrier join ASHA is asking is there any minimum wage bill that has been the subject of hearing in either the state Senate or House? Yeah. Um, not to my knowledge this session, but I will defer to the experts in the legislature. I haven't been called an expert perhaps ever, but and I dont profess to be one. Uh if my memory serves me correct, which is also imperfect. Uh we have not had a hearing of the sort, but we we need hearing, but we also need we also need action if you know, because we it seems to secretary various point. We've got interest on the other side of the aisle. That's a great starting point. Um, but 7:25 is a starting point. That is uh shamefully low. And we need to we need to raise that bar. We need to raise it to a living wage and ensure that again, we're honoring the hard work and commitment of our minimum wage workers out there. Thank you Representative Mullins. And now I think I'll just hand things back to acting secretary barrier for some final thoughts. So I just like to thank everyone again for joining us today and for bringing attention to this very important issue. As you've heard from Mr ketrow, you know, 7 25 an hour is not acceptable to pay are essential workers, individuals who work hard and put their lives at risk to take care of our loved ones. Now it's time to raise the wage. I urge the General Assembly to pass legislation. Let's do what's right? Let's make sure these individuals earn a living wage. Thank you.
Pennsylvania's acting L&I secretary calls for minimum wage increase
Raise minimum wage to $12 an hour with a path to $15, Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier says
Updated: 5:23 PM EDT Apr 20, 2021
Pennsylvania's acting secretary of labor and industry is calling on the state to raise its minimum wage to $12 an hour, with a path to an eventual $15.Watch a replay of the minimum wage news conference in the video player above.During a video news conference, Acting L&I Secretary Jennifer Berrier spoke about health care and essential workers who have remained on the job during the coronavirus pandemic and are not able to work from home."While we've done a lot to thank these workers through our words, what they really need is for us to raise the minimum wage and keep them from worrying about how to pay their bills," Berrier said. "One fair wage set at $15 an hour would benefit 18% of health care and social assistance workers."These workers do not deserve to struggle. They deserve to be paid enough to allow them to focus on the physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting task of caring for other people."Gov. Tom Wolf has announced a plan that would see the minimum wage rise to $12 this year, followed by annual 50-cent increases until it reaches $15 an hour in 2027.The minimum wage in Pennsylvania has been $7.25 an hour since 2009."All the home health care workers who are struggling right now -- I'm a little emotional right now because my mom told me to take care of her in her golden ages," said Dominick Cutro, a Scranton home care worker who was on Tuesday's video call. "You shouldn't have to bring up talking to your mom about taking care of her in her golden years vs. her going into a nursing home."Whether I'm going to get paid or I'm not going to get paid, money or no money, I'm still going to be doing what I'm doing. That's just the way I am, and that's the way I'm going to be. And a wage increase would definitely, definitely help us. It would help all of us."
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania's acting secretary of labor and industry is calling on the state to raise its minimum wage to $12 an hour, with a path to an eventual $15.
Watch a replay of the minimum wage news conference in the video player above.
During a video news conference, Acting L&I Secretary Jennifer Berrier spoke about health care and essential workers who have remained on the job during the coronavirus pandemic and are not able to work from home.
"While we've done a lot to thank these workers through our words, what they really need is for us to raise the minimum wage and keep them from worrying about how to pay their bills," Berrier said. "One fair wage set at $15 an hour would benefit 18% of health care and social assistance workers.
"These workers do not deserve to struggle. They deserve to be paid enough to allow them to focus on the physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting task of caring for other people."
Gov. Tom Wolf has announced a plan that would see the minimum wage rise to $12 this year, followed by annual 50-cent increases until it reaches $15 an hour in 2027.
The minimum wage in Pennsylvania has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.
"All the home health care workers who are struggling right now -- I'm a little emotional right now because my mom told me to take care of her in her golden ages," said Dominick Cutro, a Scranton home care worker who was on Tuesday's video call. "You shouldn't have to bring up talking to your mom about taking care of her in her golden years vs. her going into a nursing home.
"Whether I'm going to get paid or I'm not going to get paid, money or no money, I'm still going to be doing what I'm doing. That's just the way I am, and that's the way I'm going to be. And a wage increase would definitely, definitely help us. It would help all of us."