Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

How Pennsylbama celebrated Equal Pay Day

Harrisburg is trying to hold down women workers by blocking sick leave in Philly.

So Tuesday was celebrated across the nation as Equal Pay Day, the day into this not-so-new year that an average female has to work to make as much as the average male worker did last year. Yes, it's a complicated problem, but yesterday was a pretty good day to talk about the all-too-real issues that women face in the American workplace. But apparently the stagecoach carrying news of this event has yet reach to reach the denizens of a backwater town called Harrisburg, Pa.

You see, few problems weigh more heavily on women and their efforts to stay afloat on the job than the lack of guaranteed sick time. Like most things in 2015 America, it's a dilemma that a lot of folks who work in glass office towers or suburban office parks don't even know exists, but it devastates neighborhoods where people work in certain low-wage industries where sick days are a distant dream.

Single moms trudging to work when they're seriously sick, for fear of losing income for the week or losing their current job for good. It's one of the factors that gives Philadelphia the highest rate of deep poverty of any major U.S. city. Not to mention a reason why female pay lags.

So to honor Equal Pay Day, the Pennsylvbama Senate donned their best Tea Party attire and did this:

HARRISBURG - The Republican-dominated state Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would invalidate Philadelphia's new mandatory paid sick-leave law.

The bill, which passed by 37-12, would effectively preempt local governments from requiring companies to provide workers with paid sick days. The measure's supporters say it is necessary to have uniform rules across the state for businesses.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. John Eichelberger (R., Blair), called Philadelphia's sick-leave law "a mistake."

First of all -- and I know you'll be shocked by this, especially when H-Town is involved -- but what the measure's supporters are saying is a lie, utter baloney. They could care less about the uniformity of laws across Pennsylvania...indeed, they never do in those cases when the non-uniform thing is something the lawmakers actually like.

No, this is nothing but a giant payback to their big-business contributors and their well-heeled lobbyists, who couldn't beat back fairness in City Council and so now they'll beat it down on the most unlevel playing field they can find. Again and again, a gaggle of regressive lawmakers have thwarted the desires of Philadelphians to get deadly weapons off the streets, to pay workers a livable wage, or recuperate from an illness without going broke.

I hope Gov. Wolf has plenty of ink in his veto pen. That's one powerful weapon that could actually make Philadelphia a better place to live.