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City Council committee approves living wage for airport workers
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City Council committee approves living wage for airport workers
As debate over raising the federal mininum wage begins in Washington, a bill, applying the city's "21st Century Minimum Wage and Benefits Standard" to airport workers and others employed by companies that have concessions or leases from the city, passed out of City Council committee this morning. The living wage standard is $10.88 per hour; many airport workers make the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or less.
The Mayor's office is supporting the bill, and no one from the airport showed up to speak against it or suggest that it would lead to a loss of jobs, a common argument against minimum-wage hikes. Supporting the bill were airport workers rounded up by Fight for Philly to put a face on what they're calling "poverty wages."
"I work fulltime, but I'm hungry," Tara Russell told the committee. Russell has been working as a wheelchair attendant at the airport for four years and still makes $6 per hour. Theoretically, she also works for tips, but "the last two weeks, I got nothing. ... So how do I survive? I don't. I borrow $20 here and $20 there. I get $300 in food stamps but I'm broke." She told Council: Please make sure that no one at the airport goes hungry working fulltime."
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