Press Release– November 30, 2015
Delaware Senate Majority Caucus
For Immediate Release
Contacts: Jesse Chadderdon (302) 744-4282 or (302) 743-0945;
Patrick Jackson (302) 744-4046 or (302) 242-0036
Delaware Senate Majority Caucus
For Immediate Release
Contacts: Jesse Chadderdon (302) 744-4282 or (302) 743-0945;
Patrick Jackson (302) 744-4046 or (302) 242-0036
Marshall calls for raising minimum wage to $15 per hour
Sen. Robert Marshall, D-Wilmington West, introduced an amendment to his minimum wage bill that calls on Delaware to increase its lowest wage to $15.05 an hour by the year 2023.
The legislation would ensure that all Delawareans are earning a living wage, so they can better provide for their families and fully engage in our state’s economy with newfound purchasing power.
Even as Delaware’s economy recovers from the recession, more and more Delawareans are working low-wage jobs, prompting the state’s poverty rate to spike to 12.5 percent in 2014.
“In total, nearly 29,000 more Delawareans are living in poverty today than there were a decade ago, and the biggest reason is that wages have not kept pace with the cost of living,” Marshall said. “After decades of stagnation, with only minimal minimum wage increases, it’s time we enact a plan to make Delaware’s low-wage workers whole. After all, they represent the base of the pyramid on which our entire economy is built.”
Marshall’s amendment would call for staged increases to the state’s minimum wage on June 1 of each year: 50 cent increments annually through 2019 and then $1.20 increments starting in 2020 and running through 2023. Delaware’s minimum wage is currently $8.25 per hour, a full dollar more than the federal minimum wage. Delaware’s minimum wage increased by 50 cents twice in the last year as a result of previous legislation Marshall successfully worked through the General Assembly.
Marshall, who co-chaired the General Assembly’s Low Wage, Service Worker Task Force in 2014, said he’s amending Senate Bill 39, which he filed last year, because of new Census data that makes it increasingly clear that poverty continues to grow even as the unemployment rate stabilizes in Delaware and more people are heading back to work.
“More people are working, yet they’re still being left behind,” Marshall said. “We can’t grow our middle class without giving the 113,000 Delawareans living in poverty a real chance to join the American Dream and reach the middle class.”
In Delaware, any individual earning under $11,770 is considered “living in poverty,” while that threshold is $24,250 for a family of four. That’s simply not enough to support a family, said Sen. Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, who is co-sponsoring the amendment.
“In all the ups and downs of our economy in the past decades, there’s been one constant truth: low-income Americans have been left out,” Townsend said. “Raising the minimum wage is an important part of rethinking our economic policy and addressing the deep and growing inequalities in our society. It will put more money into the local economy and Delaware small businesses. It also will put more money directly in the hands of workers, enabling them to rely more on the product of their own hard work and less on government programs and taxpayer support.”
The legislation would ensure that all Delawareans are earning a living wage, so they can better provide for their families and fully engage in our state’s economy with newfound purchasing power.
Even as Delaware’s economy recovers from the recession, more and more Delawareans are working low-wage jobs, prompting the state’s poverty rate to spike to 12.5 percent in 2014.
“In total, nearly 29,000 more Delawareans are living in poverty today than there were a decade ago, and the biggest reason is that wages have not kept pace with the cost of living,” Marshall said. “After decades of stagnation, with only minimal minimum wage increases, it’s time we enact a plan to make Delaware’s low-wage workers whole. After all, they represent the base of the pyramid on which our entire economy is built.”
Marshall’s amendment would call for staged increases to the state’s minimum wage on June 1 of each year: 50 cent increments annually through 2019 and then $1.20 increments starting in 2020 and running through 2023. Delaware’s minimum wage is currently $8.25 per hour, a full dollar more than the federal minimum wage. Delaware’s minimum wage increased by 50 cents twice in the last year as a result of previous legislation Marshall successfully worked through the General Assembly.
Marshall, who co-chaired the General Assembly’s Low Wage, Service Worker Task Force in 2014, said he’s amending Senate Bill 39, which he filed last year, because of new Census data that makes it increasingly clear that poverty continues to grow even as the unemployment rate stabilizes in Delaware and more people are heading back to work.
“More people are working, yet they’re still being left behind,” Marshall said. “We can’t grow our middle class without giving the 113,000 Delawareans living in poverty a real chance to join the American Dream and reach the middle class.”
In Delaware, any individual earning under $11,770 is considered “living in poverty,” while that threshold is $24,250 for a family of four. That’s simply not enough to support a family, said Sen. Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, who is co-sponsoring the amendment.
“In all the ups and downs of our economy in the past decades, there’s been one constant truth: low-income Americans have been left out,” Townsend said. “Raising the minimum wage is an important part of rethinking our economic policy and addressing the deep and growing inequalities in our society. It will put more money into the local economy and Delaware small businesses. It also will put more money directly in the hands of workers, enabling them to rely more on the product of their own hard work and less on government programs and taxpayer support.”
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Press Contacts
Scott Goss
Communications Director
(302) 744-4180
scott.goss@delaware.gov
Dylan McDowell
Communications Assistant
(302) 744-4282
dylan.mcdowell@delaware.gov
Scott Goss
Communications Director
(302) 744-4180
scott.goss@delaware.gov
Dylan McDowell
Communications Assistant
(302) 744-4282
dylan.mcdowell@delaware.gov