State Senators From Philadelphia Once Again Call For Minimum Wage Increase
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Two state lawmakers from Philadelphia say they'll try once again to convince colleagues to raise Pennsylvania's minimum wage, despite the failure of past proposals. They unveiled the latest effort Tuesday at City Hall.
State senators Tina Tartaglione and Vince Hughes are now pushing a measure to raise the current Pennsylvania minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour by the start of 2015.
Tartaglione says too many families are suffering.
"There's too many people out there for whom a minimum wage job is their main job, and they're having trouble raising a family."
Tartaglione and other Democrats have introduced similar bills in the past that have failed to advance in the legislature. Hughes says they'll keep trying.
"We're going to fight," Hughes said. "We're going to wage the fight. They said we couldn't do it years ago, but we got it done."
A spokesman for Dominic Pileggi, the Republican majority leader in the state senate, said there are no plans to consider changes to the state's minimum wage laws.
