Allegheny County Council will soon consider boosting the minimum wage for county employees. Council’s committee on government reform voted Tuesday to send a bill to “establish a uniform policy governing the payment of County employees” to the full council.
The ordinance would set a pay floor for all hourly county employees, including full-time, part-time and seasonal workers. The committee amended the bill to spread out the pay raise over three years, so that the minimum wage would increase to $18 in 2024, then $19 the following year and $20 the year after.
Council member Bethany Hallam, a Democrat, introduced the bill last year. She has said it’s an important step towards improving quality of life for county employees.
According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, $23.98 is the living wage for an Allegheny County household with two working adults and two children.
The proposal passed committee by a 4-2 vote, but it has faced criticism. Republican Sam DeMarco on Tuesday voiced his concerns about its cost. He said a fiscal note shared with council members estimated the increase would be nearly $10 million, or about 1 percent of the county’s roughly $1 billion annual operating budget.
“That's a tax increase, folks,” DeMarco said, noting that the county could see reduced tax revenues in the near future due to property tax appeals from home owners and commercial property owners.
“So, while our revenues are going to be going [down],” DeMarco said, the bill is “going to take our expenses in the other direction.”
He also shared concerns that the change might impact future bargaining agreements with the 32 unions that represent county employees, and that it could lead to discrepancies in pay between county workers.
Fellow Republican Suzanne Filiaggi said she’s worried the legislation could end up in litigation and cost the county additional money.
Hallam noted that, like all county council ordinances, this one has a severability clause that allows parts of the bill to remain in place in the event some provisions are found to be illegal.
County Manager Jennifer Liptak was also at the meeting. She said the bill “violates labor law and takes the rights of the unions to bargain their wages, which violates the unions’ rights and labor law.”
If Liptak’s boss, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, vetoed the measure, it would require the support of 10 of council’s 15 members to override it. If the measure does pass, it would take effect in January 2024.
