Authorizing the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings regarding increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the City of Philadelphia.

WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia is one of the poorest major cities in the United States where nearly 30 percent of Philadelphians live below the poverty line and 50 percent make less than $15 an hour; and

WHEREAS, Some of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia are experiencing poverty rates as high as 57 percent; and

WHEREAS, The overall median income in Philadelphia has dropped 13.5 percent since 1999; and

WHEREAS, The top one percent of income earners in Pennsylvania received more than half of the total income increases in the past 30 years; and

WHEREAS, A minimum wage earner working full time, with no days off, earns $15,080 or 82 percent of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Poverty Guideline for a family of three; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia have the lowest minimum wage allowed by federal law and Pennsylvania is one of the only states in the Northeast to take no action to raise the minimum wage; and

WHEREAS, 18 states throughout the country have increased the minimum wage above that of the federal minimum wage level; and

WHEREAS, 75 percent of minimum wage workers are over the age of 20, of which one quarter are parents and a majority are the primary providers for their families; and

WHEREAS, Low wages contribute to familial instability, high crime and drug abuse rates, increases in foreclosures and homelessness and low academic performance; and

WHEREAS, Low wage work disproportionately affects women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals and members of the disabled community; and

WHEREAS, Increasing the minimum wage in the City of Philadelphia will benefit workers at all income levels, union and non-union workers; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphians have been protesting, striking and petitioning to demand increasing the minimum wage to $15; and

WHEREAS, Newly elected Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf supports increasing the minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25 an hour; and

WHEREAS, President Barack Obama has advocated for and encouraged raising the minimum wage to improve the quality of life throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, The current federal and state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour does not adequately provide a living wage for workers and is insufficient with the rising cost of living in the City of Philadelphia; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby authorizes the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings regarding increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the City of Philadelphia.

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