Measure on the ballot in the 2019 Pennsylvania Primary Election in Philadelphia city.
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Get Started**Ballot Question:** Shall The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to call on the General Assembly to either increase the Pennsylvania minimum wage now, so that it reaches $15 an hour, in stages, by 2025; or allow the City of Philadelphia to itself provide for a decent, family sustaining, living wage for working Philadelphians? **From the Commissioners:** If you vote "Yes" on this ballot question, it means that you would like to ask the State Government to do one of two things: either raise the minimum wage for the whole State, or allow Philadelphia to raise the minimum wage in the City. The goal would be to raise the wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour, over the next six years. If this ballot question passes, the State Government in Harrisburg will not be required to raise the minimum wage. But, it would send a message that people in Philadelphia want to raise the minimum wage to a "decent, family sustaining, living wage." **Seventy’s Take:** Since only the state can change the minimum wage for most private-sector workers, passage of this [ballot question](https://phila.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3862049&GUID=D45EE009-C2CC-41D2-8386-0EF7356414B5&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=minimum+wage) (sponsored by Council member [Cherelle Parker](http://phlcouncil.com/city-council-passes-legislation-putting-minimum-wage-increase-on-the-ballot/)) won’t raise anybody’s salary: It’s little more than a public-opinion poll whose results will be enshrined in Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter, along with resolutions urging the end of apartheid in South Africa, support for universal [health insurance](https://seventy.org/publications/elections-voting/may-21-2019-primary/philadelphia-county) and withdrawal of U.S troops from Iraq. And in 2015 Philadelphians voted to abolish the School Reform Commission---three years before the state did it. In 2014, Philadelphia voters overwhelmingly [approved a ballot measure](https://ballotpedia.org/City_of_Philadelphia_Sub-Contractor_Minimum_Wage_and_Benefits_Ordinance_Question,_Proposition_1_(May_2014)) that actually did raise the minimum wage for employees of many city subcontractors to $12 an hour. That was one of [various minimum-wage referenda](https://ballotpedia.org/Local_wages_and_pay_on_the_ballot) have appeared on ballots around the country in recent years, and voters in Denver will face one this May 7. Last year, voters in Flagstaff, AZ, [voted down](https://ballotpedia.org/Flagstaff,_Arizona,_Proposition_418,_Initiative_to_Decrease_the_Minimum_Wage_(November_2018)) a proposal to decrease that city’s minimum wage.
Shall The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to call on the General Assembly to either increase the Pennsylvania minimum wage now, so that it reaches $15 an hour, in stages, by 2025; or allow the City of Philadelphia to itself provide for a decent, family sustaining, living wage for working Philadelphians?
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