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HARRISBURG, Feb. 7 -- State Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Phila., is urging her colleagues to support increasing the minimum wage above and beyond what is already set by law.
On Tuesday, Josephs circulated a memo to all House members calling on them to support Rep. Mark Cohen's bill to immediately raise the wage and tie future increases to an index.
"One in four working families, or about 1.4 million families in Pennsylvania, are low income and struggling even though at least one person in each household is working full time," Josephs said citing facts provided by PathWaysPA, one of greater Philadelphia's foremost nonprofit providers of residential and community-based services for women and their children.
"In those families live 695,000 children. We need to improve the condition of these children and their families, and one way to do that is to tie the minimum wage to the cost-of-living index."
The current minimum wage was increased on Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania to $6.25; a second increase to $7.15, goes into effect July 1. Josephs and other legislators fought to increase the wage further last year, but were successful only in achieving the existing two increases. Now, they want to try again.
"Everyone is concerned with the health, well-being and safety of women, and all of us want every Pennsylvania child to grow up to be a productive citizen. The single most important step any of us can take to address the plight of these working families and their children is to raise the minimum wage without delay," she said.
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