Pennsylvania State Representative and Penn alumnus Mark Cohen thinks it’s time to raise the state’s minimum wage again — a measure that would affect many college students working minimum wage jobs.
Cohen, a Democrat, believes raising the state minimum wage to at least $8.25 per hour will help to alleviate the economic pressures the nation’s citizens currently faces. But not everyone in the state legislature shares this belief.
Currently, Pennsylvania uses the national minimum wage — $7.25 per hour — passed in July 2009. Previously, the state’s minimum wage in 2008 was $7.15 per hour, 60 cents more than national minimum at the time, $6.55 per hour.
Cohen said after speaking to other legislators and labor representatives, he believes $8.25 is a reasonable goal to be reached in 2010.
However, the raise will likely be met withresistance. Executive Director of the Pennsylvania House Republican Committee Andrew Ritter, Jr. said it is probably too soon after the last wage increase to consider another. He added that, given the recession, an increase right now is “illogical.”
Cohen, however, sees the potential increase as a boost to help end the recession. He said people who earn the least are also the people who save the least, so their additional earnings will go right back into the economy.
Cohen also addressed the concern that a mandated wage increase will put additional pressure on already struggling small businesses.
He said because minimum-wage jobs are mostly in establishments in which low-income indivduals make up both the employees and clients, the increased earnings will be spent in the same places that will have to begin paying employees more. Therefore, he said, the potential burden on small businesses is balanced out.
Lower-income individuals will not be the only ones to see direct benefits from the increase. Many work-study jobs on Penn’s campus pay minimum wage, so a statewide increase would mean more income for students.
Ritter, however, voiced concerns about how a minimum wage increase will affect teen unemployment in general. He said any minimum wage increase is a market distortion, causing employers to be less likely to hire teenagers when they can get more seasoned help for the same price.
Though an increase in 2010 is not definite, Cohen said there is a “good shot at it if we can get people revved up to contact their legislators.”
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