City Raises Minimum Wage for City Contractors to $12 an Hour

Subcontractors — which includes many of the 141,000 who work at Philadelphia International Airport — will also get the raise starting January 1.

As expected, Michael Nutter today signed an executive order hiking the minimum wage in Philadelphia for city contractors and subcontractors to $12 an hour. It will go into effect January 1, 2015.

Philadelphia city contractors already make a minimum wage of $10.88 an hour, 150 percent of the minimum wage. Nutter’s order raises that wage and extends it to subcontractors. Last year, a legal order ruled that the $10.88 “living wage” the city offers did not apply to subcontractors. There are many subcontractors among the 141,000 who work at Philadelphia International Airport.

Philadelphians will vote on extending the living wage to subcontractors in a ballot question in the May 20th primary; it’s unclear what will happen if that ballot question fails.