PA City To Pay Firefighters, Police Officers Federal Minimum Wage, “City Is Broke”

PA City Defies Court Order; Reduces Police Officers, Firefighters’ Pay To Minimum Wage

IOU in a piggy bank (Photo credit: Images_of_Money)

By Travis Waldron on Jul 8, 2012 at 9:58 am

Ignoring a federal judge’s injunction, Scranton, Pennsylvania moved ahead with its plan to reduce the pay of city workers to the federal minimum wage starting Friday. Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty claims the city is broke and that the minimum wage payments are all it can possibly pay, the Scranton Times Tribune reports:

Amid Scranton’s ever-deepening financial crisis, Mayor Chris Doherty said his administration is going forward with a plan to unilaterally slash the pay of 398 workers to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour with today’s payroll, insisting it is all the city can afford.

That will likely earn administration officials an appointment with Judge Michael Barrasse, who granted the city’s police, fire and public works unions a special injunction temporarily barring the administration from imposing the pay cuts after a brief hearing Thursday.

Read more at Think Progress.

WUPN: What do you think, good, bad, seen this coming? How many more cities and towns will face this?