On Sunday July 9, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed Senate Bill 1090 to increase the PA minimum wage in two steps: $6.25 an hour beginning on Jan. 1, 2007; and to $7.15/hour beginning on July 1, 2007. This is a great improvement but there is still a long road ahead for working families struggling to meet their most basic needs.
A self-sufficiency standard is the minimum income required for low-income, working families to pay for food, health care, child care, transportation, housing and taxes.
A single mother with a pre-schooler in Philadelphia requires an hourly wage of almost $16.00 an hour in order to be self-sufficient. With an income of $7.15 an hour, a mother still has make a difficult choice between paying for child care so that she can work and paying for health care, and buying food or heating the house in the winter. Living wage greatly affects families' and especially childrens' well-being.
For more information on living wage and its impact on maternal and child health, visit PathWaysPA.
Read the Senate bill here.
|