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Mayor of Scranton cuts city workers' pay to Minimum Wage ($7.25 an hour)
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[link to www.digitaljournal.com]
The city does not have sufficient money to pay its employees so the mayor reduced the wages of all employees, including
police, firefighters, and his own, to Pennsylvania's minimum wage — $7.25 an hour.
The government of the city of 76,000 has a $16.8 million deficit and does not have enough money to pay its workers
their regular salaries. So on June 27, Mayor Chris Doherty announced that beginning on July 6, all 400 city employees
would be paid the minimum wage.
The city's unions took the city to court. The International Business Times reports that on July 6, a judge ruled the
city had to pay its employees their regular wages even though the city has no money. The judge found the city was
breaking the law by paying only the minimum wage.
Doherty concedes he broke the law after issuing the minimum wage cheques right after the judge's ruling. But he said he
had no other choice. Doherty told NPR, "I'm trying to do the best I can with the limited amount of funds that I have. I
want the employees to get paid. Our people work hard—our police and fire—I just don't have enough money and I can't
print it in the basement."
After paying everyone the minimum wage, the city only had $5,000 remaining in its coffers.
Firefighter John Judge usually receives about $1500 every two weeks. Last Friday, he was paid less than $600. Judge
was quoted by WBUR as saying, "Don't know how I'm going to pay bills at home. I may be able to stave it off for a
little while. The kids aren't going to be able to do certain activities this summer — maybe we're not going to be able to
go on vacation."
Doherty, a Democrat, is at odds with the Democratic council about how to resolve the budget deficit. Business Week
reports Doherty wants to increase property taxes 78% over three years and impose a $22 garbage collection fee over two
years. The council says that's too much.
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