City Councilman At-Large W. Wilson Goode, Jr. has introduced Living Wage & Healthcare Benefits Enforcement Legislation, including two bills and a resolution, empowering City Council to bring debarment charges against city contractors for failure to comply with the City’s minimum wage and healthcare benefits standard.

The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter amendment would confirm Council’s power to enact ordinances that require City contractors and recipients of City financial assistance to provide their employees a minimum level of pay and healthcare benefits. The New Minimum Wage and Benefits Ordinance requires City-supported employers to pay at least 150% of the federal minimum wage to its employees. It also mandates that if the employer provides healthcare benefits to any of its employees, the employer shall provide each full-time employee healthcare benefits at least as valuable as the basic healthcare benefits that are provided to the employer’s other full-time employees.

The Philadelphia Code amendment would provide that Council may, by resolution, determine that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a participant, contractor, project developer, or applicant for or recipient of financial assistance has failed to comply with the minimum wage and healthcare benefits standard and should be subject to debarment.