Allegheny County employees will have a new minimum wage starting next year and that wage will eventually increase to $20 an hour.
The law will set $20 an hour as the minimum wage for county workers by 2026. There would be incremental increases to $18 an hour next year and to $19 an hour in 2025.
Allegheny County Council first passed the bill earlier this month on a 10-4 vote, but Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald vetoed. He said it would violate the county’s Home Rule Charter and that the wage increases would lead to tax increase.
On Tuesday, council overrode Fitzgerald’s veto on a 10-5 vote. Ten votes is the minimum number required to override a veto.
This was the second time a Fitzgerald veto was successfully overridden by council. Council overrode a veto last year to enact a fracking ban in county-owned parks.
Fitzgerald said Tuesday that his office might be considering a legal challenge.
Allegheny County Council President Pat Catena, D-Carnegie, said the wage increase is needed to help county workers, particular those who have children, and he hopes this law will help. He said that a couple with two children each needs to make $23 an hour to support their family in Allegheny County, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator.
In a statement following the override vote, Fitzgerald said his opposition to the council legislation doesn’t mean he opposes raising workers’ wages. Rather, he said his administration thinks that...
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