Rendell signs $7.15 wage law to cheers

Boosted by a cheering crowd, Gov. Rendell yesterday signed into law the first minimum-wage increase in Pennsylvania in nearly a decade.

Surrounded by lawmakers, labor organizers and religious leaders at a West Philadelphia church, Rendell said the increase would lift thousands of workers above the poverty level.

"There is no bill I will sign that will give me more personal gratification than this," he said.

The law will gradually raise the minimum wage to $7.15 an hour, $2 above the federal mimimum.

Rendell said the increase would improve the lives of 423,000 workers.

Carl Grant, a 55-year-old Philadelphia resident, is one of them.

Grant, a minimum-wage worker invited by Rendell to speak at the ceremony, said the increase would put $80 extra in his paycheck every two weeks - enough to help him find better employment.

"That $80 to $85 will give me the chance to find transportation to the suburbs to find work," said Grant, who is trained as an electrician but said he had been unable to find work in his trade because of his age.

The wage increase will be phased in over two years under a deal with Republican legislators, who had argued that higher wages would mean fewer jobs.

For employers with 10 or more workers, the first raise will kick in Jan. 1, to $6.25 an hour. The $7.15 minimum will take effect July 1.

Employers with fewer than 10 workers have more time, with mandated increases to $5.85 an hour on Jan. 1, then $6.65 next July 1 and $7.15 on July 1, 2008.

Employers who hire students for part-time, seasonal positions may seek exemptions to pay 85 percent of the new minimum wage.

The bill-signing, held at Sharon Baptist Church after services, was part religious revival and part campaign rally, with at least two known candidates - Rendell, who is seeking a second term as governor, and former City Councilman Michael Nutter, who is running for mayor - and one potential mayoral candidate, State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.).

The day's Democratic message, delivered in the spacious, modern church on a campuslike setting in a middle-class neighborhood, was that guaranteeing workers a "livable" wage is a "values" issue.

"A nation like ours should have no people living in poverty," said Erick Kendall, a Sharon Baptist parishioner. He said that he had relatives who made the minimum wage, and that he knew an electrician "in the same boat" as Grant.

"It's great to see this come to fruition," Kendall said.

In a clear jab at Republican leaders who stalled the state's minimum-wage bill and continue to hold up a proposed federal wage increase in Congress, Rendell said:

"Politicians love to talk about religious values and moral values. Is paying less than the federal poverty level moral?"

The signing came eight days after lawmakers gave final approval to make the state the 21st to raise its minimum wage above the federal rate of $5.15.

Democratic lawmakers, led by the bill's sponsor, State Sen. Christine Tartaglione of Philadelphia, who had sought an increase for six years, called it long overdue.

"Today we are going to make it right," said Tartaglione, who has waged her battle from a wheelchair since being severely injured in a boating accident in 2003. "It's been a long road to get here."

For many union activists and interfaith groups, the bill-signing was the culmination of a yearlong campaign to compel Republican leaders in Harrisburg to bring the bill to a vote.

"This is barely a decent wage, but it's a start," said Shoshana Bricklin, advocacy coordinator for Interfaith Advocates, a coalition of more than 15 Philadelphia-area congregations that lobbied to raise the minimum wage.

State Rep. Mark B. Cohen (D., Phila.), a leading supporter of the increase, said $7.15 an hour was not good enough. He has introduced a bill to raise the minimum wage again - to $8 an hour by January 2008.