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1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 2 * * * * 3 Budget Hearing 4 Department of Labor & Industry Committee
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6 Appropriations Committee
7 Main Capitol Building 8 Majority Caucus Room 140 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 9
10 Wednesday, February 19, 2020
11 --oOo--
12 MAJORITY MEMBERS PRESENT:
13 Honorable George Dunbar, Acting Majority Chairman Honorable Rosemary Brown 14 Honorable Lynda Schlegel-Culver Honorable Sheryl Delozier 15 Honorable Jonathan Fritz Honorable Matt Gabler 16 Honorable Keith Greiner Honorable Seth Grove 17 Honorable Marcia Hahn Honorable Doyle Heffley 18 Honorable Lee James Honorable John Lawrence 19 Honorable Jason Ortitay Honorable Clint Owlett 20 Honorable Chris Quinn Honorable Greg Rothman 21 Honorable James Struzzi Honorable Jesse Topper 22 Honorable Jeff Wheeland Honorable Ryan Warner 23 Honorable Martina White
24 1300 Garrison Drive, York, PA 17404 25 717.764.7801
Key Reporters [email protected] 2
1 MINORITY COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
2 Honorable Matt Bradford, Minority Chairman Honorable Donna Bullock 3 Honorable Morgan Cephas Honorable Carolyn Comitta 4 Honorable Austin Davis Honorable Maria Donatucci 5 Honorable Elizabeth Fiedler Honorable Marty Flynn 6 Honorable Edward Gainey Honorable Patty Kim 7 Honorable Stephen Kinsey Honorable Leanne Krueger 8 Honorable Stephen McCarter Honorable Benjamin Sanchez 9 Honorable Peter Schweyer
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11 NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
12 Honorable Jim Cox, Minority Chairman Labor & Industry Committee 13 Honorable Cris Dush Honorable Curt Sonney 14 Honorable Tom Mehaffie Honorable Frank Farry 15 Honorable Frank Ryan Honorable Mark Gillen 16 Honorable Joe Ciresi Honorable Joe Webster 17 Honorable Brian Simms Honorable Joe Hohenstein 18 Honorable Pam DeLissio Honorable Kevin Boyle 19 Honorable Chris Sainato Honorable Ed Neilson 20 Honorable Patrick Harkins Honorable Gerald Mullery 21 Honorable Carol Hill-Evans Honorable Kerry Benninghoff 22
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1 STAFF ATTENDANCE:
2 David Donley 3 Majority Executive Director
4 Ritchie LaFaver 5 Deputy Executive Director
6 Ann Baloga 7 Minority Executive Director
8 Tara Trees 9 Minority Chief Counsel
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1 INDEX OF TESTIFIERS
2 TESTIFIERS
3 DEPARTMENT OF LABOR & INDUSTRY 4
5 W. Gerard Oleksiak Secretary 6
7 Robert O'Brien Executive Deputy Secretary 8
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11 SUBMITTED WRITTEN TESTIMONY 12 (See other submitted testimony and handouts 13 online.)
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19 REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS 20 PAGE LINE PAGE LINE PAGE LINE 21 8 2-5 29 4-5 40 3-9 22 45 7-13 79 1-3 97 10-13 23 100 4-6 24
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1 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Good
2 afternoon, everyone. We are prepared for a
3 3 o'clock meeting with the Department of Labor and
4 Industry.
5 And Secretary Oleksiak, as you know, I'm
6 Representative -- I swear I think this happened
7 last year as well with you, Secretary, that
8 Representative Saylor was not here.
9 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I think he came
10 later on, but that's okay. We're happy to see you.
11 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: And if
12 you want to introduce your Executive Deputy.
13 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Sure. This is
14 Executive Deputy Secretary Robert O'Brien, Bobby
15 O'Brien, who is --
16 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Can
17 you pull the microphone a little closer there?
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: -- who is very
19 well-versed on the ins and outs of Labor and
20 Industry. He's been at the agency for many years.
21 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: If you
22 don't mind standing and raising your right hand, we
23 can swear you in.
24 (All testifiers sworn en masse).
25 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Please
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1 have a seat.
2 In the interest of time, we'll be having
3 testifiers. We're not offering any opening
4 remarks. We'll get right on with questioning, if
5 that's all right with you, Secretary.
6 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: That's fine.
7 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: We
8 will start with Representative Brown.
9 REPRESENTATIVE BROWN: Thank you,
10 Mr. Chairman.
11 And thank you, Mr. Secretary. Deputy
12 Secretary, thank you for being here this afternoon.
13 Our Centers For Independent Living do
14 fantastic work, and I believe nine out of the 17
15 Pennsylvania Centers for Independent Living are
16 state funded. The Governor, from what I see, has
17 proposed level funding for the CILs at the time.
18 And I'd like to --
19 I do have a representative that is very
20 much available within my district, by appointment
21 for constituents, does a great job. I'll give a
22 shout out to him, Bob Fox, does a wonderful job
23 coming in and working with people to help them move
24 forward with employment, and just live the best
25 life that they can live.
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1 My concern is, looking at the level
2 funding, your thoughts on that, with the attachment
3 of -- I believe OVR charges a 2 and a half percent
4 charge per center in some fashion. I'd like to get
5 your feelings on that charge, and what that means
6 to possibly looking at ways to maybe get some
7 increase revenue to the CILs.
8 And then, with that, the thought also on
9 the Centers For Independent Living, possibly
10 because of the services they provide and what they
11 do for our constituents, moving or shifting to the
12 Department of Human Services as well.
13 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you for that
14 question.
15 The Centers for Independent Living are a
16 key part of what the services we provide for folks
17 through OVR. I know there was an increase last
18 year in their budget, but it had been flat funded
19 before that.
20 One of the things that's particularly
21 difficult at times in our world is that, we can't
22 provide the funds that we want to provide for
23 everyone. It's a matter of -- One of my favorite
24 definitions of politics is how we allocate scarce
25 resources. We just don't have the funds that we
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1 would like to devote to that.
2 I'm not aware of the 2 and a half
3 percent charge. And I will certainly look into
4 that and find out what we can and get back to you
5 on that.
6 REPRESENTATIVE BROWN: Thank you.
7 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: But we're
8 supporters certainly of the centers.
9 REPRESENTATIVE BROWN: Thank you. That
10 would be appreciated. As we said, as we look at
11 the good work that they do, looking at ways to
12 maybe see what charges they have and where we can
13 allocate more funds to the work that they do would
14 be great.
15 And your thoughts quickly before we
16 close out on them shifting over more to Department
17 of Human Services.
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I don't have
19 thoughts one way or the other. I think we're very
20 happy with working through our Office of Vocational
21 Rehab with the CILs, and we're very pleased to
22 continue to do that.
23 REPRESENTATIVE BROWN: Have there been
24 any conversations at all --
25 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Not that I been a
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1 part of.
2 (Cross talk).
3 REPRESENTATIVE BROWN: Thank you both
4 very much.
5 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
6 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
7 you, Representative.
8 Next will be Representative Krueger.
9 REPRESENTATIVE KRUEGER: Thank you,
10 Mr. Chairman.
11 Thank you so much, Secretary, for
12 joining us here today. As the Democratic Secretary
13 of the Labor and Industry Committee, I've got to
14 work closely with you and your staff on a number of
15 issues that really impact Pennsylvania, and I'm
16 grateful for your leadership.
17 I want to say first that I was really
18 pleased to see that the Governor again proposed an
19 increase in the minimum wage. Overwhelmingly,
20 people in Pennsylvania believe that it's way past
21 time to raise the wage and to start to compete with
22 every single surrounding state that has a higher
23 minimum wage than we do.
24 I want to highlight something that we've
25 heard from a local small business owner. I've seen
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1 data over and over again that most small business
2 owners actually think that an increase in the
3 minimum wage would make them more competitive and
4 would be better for their businesses.
5 Jenny Groff from Stroopies, which is a
6 Dutch stroopwafel company in Lancaster County, has
7 said this: Stroopies, Inc. is committed to serving
8 the women that work for us well by laying out a
9 plan to offer a thriving wage. We believe that we
10 all benefit when we care for what God has given us
11 to nurture. For this reason, as small business
12 owners, we support the minimum wage increase in
13 Pennsylvania. Again, I want to underscore. We
14 believe that we all benefit when we care for what
15 God has given us to nurture.
16 And, certainly, as small business
17 owners, employees are one of the most important
18 assets and partners that they've got in their
19 business. So I'm glad to see so many business
20 owners coming forward to support what the Governor
21 is doing.
22 I want to ask about the new regulations
23 for overtime pay, which has been certainly a topic
24 of conversation on the Labor and Industry Committee
25 over the past few months. The current regulations
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1 have not been updated at the state level since
2 1977. I want to say that again.
3 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Sure.
4 REPRESENTATIVE KRUEGER: Since 1977.
5 That's actually before a good portion of the
6 Appropriations Committee members on this side of
7 the aisle were born. Many of us were born --
8 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I don't think Bob
9 and I -- Bob and I can't say that.
10 REPRESENTATIVE KRUEGER: Regardless of
11 what year we were born, over 40 years is a really
12 long time to wait to update a regulation that has
13 such an impact here in Pennsylvania.
14 I know that before IRRC approved the
15 final regulation, there was an extensive public
16 comment period. What does the Department hear when
17 you put this new regulation out for comment?
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: The comments we
19 heard were overwhelming positive, for some of the
20 reasons that you state.
21 It has been that long, long past time to
22 both increase the minimum wage and to address the
23 overtime regs. We're very happy with how it went,
24 the process went at IRRC. We know the House and
25 Senate may have something to say about that, and
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1 then it will go to the Attorney General's Office,
2 and then, hopefully, we'll get those regs in place.
3 It will be -- It's very consistent with what the
4 Governor's approach has been all along, which is,
5 what can we do to help build the middle class; to
6 help support working men and women; to support
7 working families. So we, ah -- we've supported
8 this from the very beginning. We're happy to be a
9 big part of it.
10 REPRESENTATIVE KRUEGER: And can you
11 tell us, when this regulation goes into effect, how
12 many people in Pennsylvania will benefit and what
13 kind of jobs do they do? What industries are these
14 folks working in?
15 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, the numbers
16 that we have would indicate that there's about
17 143,000 Pennsylvanians would benefit from this
18 increase. These jobs, a lot of them are jobs that
19 would be --
20 You know, we talk at Labor and Industry.
21 These are people that you see on your way to work
22 in the morning, when you stop and, you know, go to
23 your fast-food store, your convenience store.
24 These are people that work in the hotels
25 where you stay. These are your friends and
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1 neighbors and relatives. So these are not people
2 that are luxuriating in their income. These are
3 people that need the dollars to support their
4 families.
5 REPRESENTATIVE KRUEGER: Thank you. And
6 I know that the proposal that was recently approved
7 by IRRC would match the new federal regulation for
8 the first year and then actually go above it.
9 Why did the Department choose to go
10 above the new federal threshold?
11 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We could get into
12 the weeds quite a bit on this.
13 The federal salary threshold was based
14 on the lowest 20 percent of salaried workers in the
15 south, and we felt that that did not reflect what
16 was the situation here in Pennsylvania. Our salary
17 threshold is based on the lowest 10 percent of
18 exempt salary workers in Pennsylvania.
19 REPRESENTATIVE KRUEGER: And I
20 appreciate that. I know for the folks that I
21 represent in Delaware County, cost of living, cost
22 of housing, cost of child care is markedly
23 different in a county like Delaware County as
24 compared to the lowest 20,000 -- or 20 percent of
25 salaried workers in the south.
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1 So, thank you so much for enforcing a
2 regulation or enacting a regulation that actually
3 takes into account what it takes a working family
4 to survive in Pennsylvania. Thank you for your
5 leadership.
6 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
7 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
8 you, Representative.
9 Next would be Representative Culver.
10 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Thank
11 you, Mr. Chairman.
12 Over here, Mr. Secretary. How are you?
13 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Good. Thank you.
14 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: I want
15 to talk a little bit about OVR funding, and the
16 order of selection the VR waiting list for OVR. As
17 you know, OVR services help people with
18 disabilities either become employed or stay
19 employed; and as such, are a great partner for
20 House members when we're trying to get our
21 constituents the services that they need, and we're
22 helpful for that partnership or we're grateful for
23 that partnership.
24 But members are beginning to receive
25 communications from our constituents about
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1 individuals with disabilities being unable to
2 access OVR services, and it's concerning to us that
3 that's happening. So, can you talk a little bit
4 about the OVR's order of selection VR waiting list;
5 for example, the number of people on the waiting
6 list, and any plans to address the waiting list?
7 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yes, I would be
8 happy to talk about that.
9 OVR has been a focus of our agency since
10 the last budget cycle when we realized that we were
11 going to run into some issues, and we'd read into
12 the reasons why later.
13 Currently, as of February 12th, there
14 were 6300 people on the waiting list. We reopened
15 the order of selection in a rolling process on
16 February 1st, and we were able to accept 2200.
17 2200 people came off the waiting list. So, we're
18 very happy about that. We've worked closely with
19 the Governor's Office, the Policy Office, Budget
20 Office, our own OVR staff; worked diligently to
21 find way to enable us to do that. Our board was
22 very helpful.
23 So, we are in -- We have opened the
24 order of selection on a rolling basis. We will be
25 evaluating that constantly, formally every month to
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1 make sure that we're in a good place; that we can
2 extend that rolling opening. And believe me, we
3 are not, not, not in the business of denying
4 services. It's very difficult for us.
5 Some of you may know I was a special
6 education teacher before I --
7 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: So, I
8 mean, for us it's a pathway to independence, right?
9 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We don't want you
10 to --
11 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: It's a
12 pathway for independence.
13 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yes, it is.
14 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: So, can
15 you comment on what the Governor's budget does for
16 OVR services, and maybe provide an update on any
17 new initiatives or anything you feel we would need
18 to know about?
19 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I think that we
20 could start with saying that one of the reasons
21 that we were concerned about our budget before was
22 the federal reallocation funds. Reallocation funds
23 are what we get from the Federal Government that
24 other states don't use for their OVR efforts. That
25 number had been trending downward, and we were very
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1 concerned what that number would be for us -- for
2 us to spend this year, and we were thrilled when we
3 got 25 million or 28 million. Bob, I can't
4 remember.
5 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
6 27.5.
7 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: 27.5 million in
8 reallocation funds, which went a long way to enable
9 us to reopen the order of selection. We've also
10 spent a lot of time internally at OVR in looking at
11 what we can do to save funds, cleaning up
12 caseloads, reassigning different tasks. The lien
13 process that we've used to look how we can do
14 things more effectively.
15 We have been able to find $19.6 million
16 in savings in the budget. So we're -- We feel very
17 confident that we'll have the funds certainly to
18 get through the next budget cycle. After that, a
19 lot depends on what happens at the federal level.
20 The federal dollars that we get, we get
21 as a result of matching funds that the state puts
22 up. So we already put up through the state enough
23 to get those matching funds, and enough to be able
24 to reclaim some of that excess money, the
25 reallocation funds. So, our state budget is --
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1 we're in a good place. We have to watch what
2 happens at the federal level.
3 One other thing I should mention
4 quickly. One of the reasons that we ran into some
5 of the budget issues we had is because of
6 preemployment transition services. There's a
7 15 percent minimum that we must commit to helping
8 students that have IEPs get ready for transitioning
9 to full employment.
10 That 15 percent is a floor; not a
11 ceiling. So it's hard for us to predict exactly
12 how many of the 140 -- over 140,000 students that
13 are eligible for that will tap into it.
14 So, there's a lot of variables that go
15 into the budget, but right now we're doing fine as
16 far as the state is concerned.
17 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: So, if
18 you had to guess, how many people do you think you
19 can get off that waiting list this year?
20 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I -- I would
21 hesitate to guess. Our goal is to get everybody
22 off.
23 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Okay.
24 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: That's our goal, as
25 quickly as possible.
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1 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Is it
2 attainable?
3 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I -- All those
4 variables that I talked about are in place. We
5 don't know how many students are going to be
6 providing the PETS services for the pre-ETS
7 Services.
8 So, we will continue to work at it. I
9 don't want to make any commitments. I would love
10 to say a hundred percent, but I'm not going to say
11 that.
12 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Thank
13 you, Secretary.
14 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
15 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Thank
16 you, Mr. Chairman.
17 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
18 you, Representative.
19 Next will be Representative Kim.
20 REPRESENTATIVE KIM: Mr. Secretary,
21 thank you so much for your attendance and for
22 taking our questions.
23 As you know, raising the minimum wage
24 has been a key priority during my time in the
25 Legislature, and I've seen some patterns during
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1 this period. In the last seven years, I've seen
2 states increase its minimum wage year after year.
3 Right now 29 states and Washington, D.C. are on
4 that list. D.C., California and Massachusetts have
5 raised its wage, which isn't surprising, but when I
6 see states like Alaska, Arkansas, Missouri, South
7 Dakota, Nebraska, West Virginia and Montana all
8 have a higher minimum wage than Pennsylvania --
9 Missouri is even set to raise its minimum wage to
10 $11.15 by 2022, but Pennsylvania continues to lag
11 every year.
12 Another change that I've seen is the
13 stance of Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and
14 Industry. They have been a vocal opponent of a
15 mandated higher minimum wage since I introduced my
16 first minimum wage bill. President and CEO Gene
17 Barr is usually the opposing sound bite that we see
18 on the news after a raise of wage rally.
19 But in January in their press release,
20 they said that they would support Senate Bill 79.
21 It's a bill passed by the Senate that raises the
22 minimum wage to 9.50 an hour by 2022. I don't want
23 to take Mr. Barr's comments out of context, so I'll
24 just read the paragraph in the press release. He
25 says:
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1 We remain hopeful that all sides can
2 work together to resolve differences of opinion on
3 these proposed policies. We believe Senate Bill 79
4 represents such a compromise by maintaining the
5 status quo related to overtime eligibility and
6 acting for regulatory reform related to overtime in
7 a more manageable increase to the state's minimum
8 wage.
9 Although we have long opposed government
10 mandate that increases to entry-level wages and
11 minimum wage section of Senate Bill 79 is
12 structured in a way that mitigates the negative
13 impact on businesses.
14 One of the newest business owner is
15 paying her employees above the minimum wage. This
16 is the quote by Andrea Grove, the owner of
17 Elementary Coffee, which I encourage everyone to
18 patronize. Great coffee there. She says:
19 For me, over five years ago when I was
20 writing Elementary's business plan, how I was going
21 to pay my team was at the forefront of the cost of
22 doing business. Prior to scrounging together
23 enough money to start our little coffee company,
24 I'd only ever had minimum wage or slightly above
25 minimum wage jobs. I knew what it was like to
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1 attempt to live off standard labor pay.
2 For this reason and my farming
3 background, for the general humanity behind pay
4 wages, I was dedicated to providing for my
5 employees where I had never been provided for
6 myself. But, you shouldn't have to be forced to
7 live on minimum wage to fight for the raise of
8 minimum wage.
9 Now, Andrea Grove believes a living wage
10 is better for business and better for her
11 employees.
12 Mr. Secretary, I do have a question. In
13 your travels across the Commonwealth, have you seen
14 a trend towards more small or large businesses
15 supporting a higher minimum wage?
16 And then often, we hear that a minimum
17 wage increase will hurt businesses that employ
18 those workers. Can you provide any information
19 that shows economic benefit to the business
20 community or economic benefit in general from an
21 increase in the minimum wage?
22 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yes, we can, and --
23 And we have. I've been honored to stand alongside
24 of you, Representative Kim, at many occasions to
25 speak on behalf of the minimum wage.
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1 As we were preparing for this, I had to
2 kind of collect myself every once in a while
3 because -- And as you pointed out, our wages are
4 embarrassingly low. We should be embarrassed to be
5 at a 7-dollar-25-cent minimum wage. The fact that
6 we have to come repeatedly, particularly when it --
7 an increase was already passed and talked about
8 this, it's becoming more and more frustrating.
9 We are hearing more business --
10 businesses that support it. They support it for
11 very practical business reasons: Higher employee
12 retention, higher employee satisfaction, more money
13 in the community to support their small business
14 depending on what it is.
15 The people who get minimum wage
16 increases are not putting it in their IRAs. They
17 are using it to pay for their cost of living. And
18 if the wage is closer to a living wage, then they
19 can make a decision on Friday night to go out and
20 get a pizza and a movie, which some of them can't
21 go to movies. Some of them can't do that now.
22 It's -- It's -- It is embarrassing we
23 are at $7.25. I feel that what we, who supporting
24 it, should be doing is putting the onus on people
25 who don't support it. You tell us why it's okay to
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1 have a $7.25 minimum wage when we know that
2 increasing it to $12, which is what the Governor
3 initially wanted, would benefit 2 million
4 Pennsylvanians. Two million people would benefit
5 from a wage increase. And shame on us for not
6 doing it.
7 REPRESENTATIVE KIM: That's all I have.
8 Thank you so much for your comments.
9 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
10 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
11 you, Representative.
12 Next will be Representative Topper.
13 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: Thank you,
14 Mr. Chairman.
15 And thank you, Secretary, Deputy
16 Secretary for being with us today.
17 I'd like to go back to an issue that
18 really came to the forefront while I was on the
19 Labor and Industry Committee a few sessions ago,
20 and your predecessors were in place as well, and
21 that was the issue where we were grappling with the
22 whole IBM debacle and the modernization and the
23 unemployment call centers. I just -- I can
24 remember that time being very difficult to say the
25 least time for both us and the Legislature, as well
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1 as your Department.
2 We've not heard a great deal over the
3 past year, and a lot of times my feeling is, no
4 news is good news. But, as a member of the
5 Appropriations Committee, I would like some news on
6 how we're doing with that kind of recovering our
7 costs, recovering our time that we lost, if that's
8 even possible, and where we're at with that current
9 project?
10 I see -- And I did see in your testimony
11 you said something about being in the middle of it
12 would be what you had -- you'd consider. I kind of
13 wanted to know what that was like.
14 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, let me be
15 very clear that we will not make any comments on
16 the IBM situation. That's currently in litigation.
17 So, anything I say is not going to reflect what's
18 going on there.
19 I will talk about the progress we're
20 making in our benefits modernization I.T. program.
21 The reason --
22 You're correct. Sometimes when you
23 don't hear anything, that makes me a little
24 nervous. I always think, no news is no news. You
25 don't know if it's good or bad. I think the fact
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1 you have not heard a lot about BenMod is indicative
2 of the fact that we are very comfortable with the
3 progress we're making with the current vendor.
4 We have been very pleased with the
5 product that we have received. We had a
6 demonstration about two weeks ago on the progress
7 that's being made. There were some representatives
8 from the Governor's Office there. We have a
9 legislative -- or a BenMod Advisory Committee that
10 some legislators are on. We provide regular
11 reports to that Committee and to the Governor's
12 Office on how we're going.
13 We fully anticipate that we will meet
14 the go-live date in October of this year, and we
15 fully anticipate that we will come in under budget
16 or on budget.
17 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: And how about
18 the workers? I know -- If this question steps on
19 that, you can go back.
20 But the workers were also, I remember,
21 coming in front of us as a committee and also
22 coming into all of our offices. They were very
23 concerned. They weren't sure how they were going
24 to use the product. I assume they've been happy as
25 well?
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1 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: They have.
2 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: We
3 have a number of employees that sit on the advisory
4 committee, and a number of employees that are
5 actively working with the system on the advisory
6 committee. We've presented multiple presentations
7 to show how the function is working, how the
8 product is working, how things are moving along.
9 The last few times there was some
10 concerns about maybe 14, 16 months ago, those
11 concerns have gone away. Our employees are very,
12 very engaged in all the different situations. Our
13 employees that sit on the advisory committee also
14 are very satisfied with the progress that we're
15 making and the progress of the product.
16 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: I'm glad to hear
17 that because, at the time one of the complaints
18 that we heard, not just as a committee, but like I
19 said, I'm sure every one of us had members (sic) in
20 our offices saying, we just don't think management
21 is listening to us. We don't think our concerns
22 are getting there. So the fact that they're on the
23 advisory committee, obviously, that should help
24 greatly. I noticed --
25 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Can I add one other
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1 piece? We have weekly calls with the vendor that
2 Bob and I are on. From OA we have Deputy Secretary
3 MacMillan who's on the calls. We are -- We are in
4 constant contact with the vendor, and we -- Any
5 issues that come up are resolved pretty quickly, so
6 we're right on schedule that we need to be on.
7 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: It sounds like
8 we won't need a second --
9 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: Our
10 employees are totally engaged and involved in the
11 process, I assure you of that.
12 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: Good.
13 On page 9 of your written testimony, you
14 said that part of this modernization process will
15 require regulatory and legislative changes. What
16 are some of those that you're looking -- looking
17 at, or what -- what do we still need to do on our
18 end because I was not aware that we would need to?
19 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I think some of it
20 involves -- And, Bob, maybe you can help with this.
21 Some of it involves technical changes
22 that would allow us to do certain things that we
23 can do with the new system that we aren't able to
24 do with the current system.
25 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: By statute?
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1 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yes.
2 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: Okay.
3 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: That's the short
4 answer. But we can -- I can get more information
5 on that for you, sir.
6 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: I would -- I
7 would like, yeah, if we could have specifically
8 what those would be. I know you have members who
9 are actively looking at this and saying, wherever
10 we need to help to kind of right this ship and keep
11 it going in the right direction, if we are right,
12 it would be helpful.
13 DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: I also
14 believe that one of the areas that we might need a
15 small technical fix is allowing for electronic
16 filings.
17 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yeah, things like
18 that.
19 REPRESENTATIVE TOPPER: Okay. Good.
20 Thank you, gentlemen, both very much.
21 Appreciate it.
22 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
23 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
24 you, Representative.
25 Next will be Representative Davis.
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1 (No response).
2 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: I'm
3 sorry. Next will be Representative Fiedler.
4 REPRESENTATIVE FIEDLER: Thank you for
5 being here.
6 The Department has --
7 (No microphone).
8 Okay, great. The Department has an
9 important public safety role through the Bureau of
10 Occupational and Industrial Safety. The bureau
11 conducts a host of inspections like boilers,
12 elevators, building plans, and flammable liquid
13 storage.
14 Can you tell us a little bit about
15 trends and the inspection backlogs, and if we have
16 any areas where we have specific problems or where
17 you see specific successes, please?
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I can tell you we
19 have made great strides in our backlogs. One area
20 particularly in our elevator inspection backlogs we
21 reduced them by 12 percent, so we are heading in
22 the right direction.
23 So, we -- It is an area that we're very
24 aware that we have work to do, and we are working
25 on it. That public safety piece that you had
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1 talked about is very important, so we are focusing
2 on reducing that backlog.
3 I don't know if you want to add
4 anything, or are we good?
5 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: No.
6 REPRESENTATIVE FIEDLER: Thank you for
7 that. I would like to change a little bit here and
8 just say -- ask about something else that's related
9 to your Department.
10 Before coming here, I worked as a
11 reporter for more than a decade, and one of the
12 reoccurring topics that came up a lot was how much
13 people struggled just to be able to pay their
14 bills. We are talking about people working one,
15 two, sometimes three jobs, and I --
16 In doing some preparation for this, I
17 was reading a little bit about the minimum wage,
18 and the specific stories of some business owners,
19 which you've heard, and also some individuals.
20 There's one woman who lives in South Philadelphia
21 who makes just over $10 an hour. She works as a
22 security guard.
23 Her granddaughter works, and she was
24 talking about how much she's struggling living with
25 her 82-year-old mother, just to get by. She works.
Key Reporters [email protected] 32
1 She said: Making this kind of money, you don't
2 have enough to retire on. You're going to have to
3 work every day for the rest of your life.
4 That's the reality for people in South
5 Philadelphia, in my district, and across the state.
6 I wonder if you could tell us a little bit more
7 about how you believe raising the minimum wage to
8 being a liveable wage would dramatically improve
9 the lives not just of business owners, but also of
10 our constituents--people in our districts across
11 the State of Pennsylvania?
12 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, I think --
13 Obviously, it would help. It's -- Sometimes we
14 think raising the minimum wage, even if it goes to
15 12 or $15 an hour, would be enough. People are
16 still going to struggle to take care of families,
17 to pay their bills, to take care of aging parents,
18 to --
19 What are they going to do if they get
20 sick? Who's gonna take care of their kids if
21 they're home sick? There's a big difference
22 between a minimum wage or the 12-dollar wage and a
23 living wage. A living wage --
24 If you go to MIT, Massachusetts
25 Institute of Technology, they have a great
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1 calculator; very easy to use. It breaks down by
2 county what the living wage would be in
3 Pennsylvania. And even in counties that would
4 surprise you, it's over $20 an hour; some 24, $25
5 an hour as a living wage. So, as long as people
6 are struggling at $10 an hour or less, it's -- it's
7 going to be impossible to raise them out of poverty
8 to help them enter the middle class.
9 It's one of the focuses of this
10 Administration; not just raising the minimum wage,
11 but the overtime regs; paid family and medical
12 leave that's being introduced.
13 A lot of us who have these things take
14 them for granted. I think we forget that there are
15 millions, literally millions of our fellow
16 citizens, and there's -- some of them are in your
17 families that you know are struggling because the
18 minimum wage hasn't changed; the overtime regs
19 haven't changed, and everything else has gone up.
20 So it's -- It's incredibly difficult for
21 people of means. Child care. One of the things we
22 have looked at through the Keystone Command Center,
23 looking at what are the workforce policies we need
24 to put in place to create the workforce for the
25 globally economy, but also to raise people into the
Key Reporters [email protected] 34
1 middle class.
2 We're looking at the barriers, wages,
3 health care, transportation, child care, sick
4 leave. People that have these things tend to think
5 that we all have them. We all don't have that
6 social capital available to us, and it's --
7 If we want to really bring Pennsylvania
8 into the 21st Century, we need to address those
9 issues and help people like the person that you've
10 referenced.
11 REPRESENTATIVE FIEDLER: Thank you.
12 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
13 you, Representative.
14 Next will be Representative Struzzi.
15 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: Thank you.
16 Good afternoon, Secretary. Over here.
17 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
18 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: I guess the
19 timing is sort of apropos, talking about workforce
20 development and building on what Representative
21 Fiedler mentioned related to the initiative that
22 the Governor put forth last year, the Keystone
23 Economic Development and Workforce Command Center
24 that you mentioned.
25 We are clearly in a workforce
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1 development crisis right now. At least in my area
2 we have jobs -- good-paying jobs that have benefits
3 that we can't fill. And I say a crisis because, if
4 we can't fill the jobs, it makes it very difficult
5 to attract new businesses to Pennsylvania.
6 So, can you build a little bit more,
7 expound a little bit more, in this year's budget
8 the Governor aligned some of the initiatives to the
9 challenges identified by the Command Center. I'd
10 like to know more, because I think this really is
11 something that we have to address now for our
12 future.
13 I'd like to know more about what your
14 agency is doing to address those issues that you
15 just outlined in a little bit more detail.
16 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, one of the
17 things that our agency is doing, along with others,
18 as you mentioned this, the Keystone Workforce
19 Development and Command Center, and we are looking
20 at some of those barriers. We're looking at
21 barriers to employment, but also, what are -- what
22 are we doing that are getting in the way of
23 employers; whether it's licensure and certification
24 for certain positions.
25 I mean, there's a whole range of issues
Key Reporters [email protected] 36
1 we're looking at. What are we doing that's
2 duplicative? What are we doing that are creating
3 road blocks to bring people in?
4 You're right. We are -- We are in the
5 middle of a workforce development crisis.
6 Everywhere I go--I travel a lot around the state--
7 we hear the same things. I steal a line from Gene
8 Barr all the time from the Chamber. We don't just
9 have people without jobs. We have jobs without
10 people.
11 And there are reasons that those jobs
12 aren't being filled. Some of it has to do with
13 demographics and aging population. People retiring
14 and not enough bodies to fill them. Some of it has
15 to do with lack of training, and one of the things
16 that our agency does through our CareerLinks,
17 through our apprenticeship and training office,
18 through variety of programs that we have, we are
19 working to train people for those jobs that are not
20 just the jobs we need right now, but other jobs
21 we're gonna need in the future. We don't want to
22 give everybody a commercial driver's license and
23 then see that we've got driverless trucks on the
24 turnpike. So we are doing what we can, working
25 with other agencies.
Key Reporters [email protected] 37
1 Some of the money in the Governor's
2 budget two years ago was the first time there was
3 money -- state money went into apprenticeship
4 training. Before that it was all federal dollars,
5 so -- through the PAsmart program, so we're
6 expanding apprenticeship opportunities; not just in
7 the traditional trades, but also nontraditional
8 trades, like early childhood and cyber security,
9 things along those lines, that we know we're going
10 to need.
11 So there's -- Some of it in the budget
12 is going toward the -- will be used by the
13 Department of Community and Economic Development
14 and the Department of Education. So we're -- we're
15 looking at a more holistic approach, what can we do
16 to address those issues?
17 Some of it is changing some attitudes
18 about the value of trades and going to a CTE.
19 We're putting a lot of money into
20 pre-apprenticeships and getting people, ah,
21 families, not just the kids but the parents as
22 well, exposed to what the value of the trade is and
23 what it can mean.
24 I use the story quite a bit. I was
25 amazed. I went to an apprenticeship program in
Key Reporters [email protected] 38
1 Northeast Philadelphia. They were -- the
2 International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
3 They had apprenticeship bridge trainers. I said,
4 what do these guys make? $108,000 as bridge
5 painters, because it's such high-tech. They're not
6 up there with a ladder and a paint brush. It's a
7 very high-tech operation. So we need to continue
8 to attract people to those trades. We need to
9 continue to invest in getting people -- having
10 people so that those companies will be coming to
11 Pennsylvania.
12 Actually, next week the Command Center
13 is still meeting regularly, and we're gonna be
14 meeting with folks from Shell who are responsible
15 for the cracker plant out West. So, we've been
16 working closely with them to get them the folks
17 they need for all the trades. So it is -- it is
18 job 1 in our agency.
19 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: Excellent.
20 Real quick. You mentioned
21 apprenticeships. I need a little bit more
22 information on this.
23 I have a bill out there--you may be
24 aware of it--to basically align Pennsylvania's
25 apprenticeship law with the Federal Department of
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1 Labor law. We have been out of compliance,
2 apparently, since 2008. And I really think that
3 apprenticeships are the key, as you said, to
4 filling those gaps in the trade industries related
5 to jobs and workforce development.
6 But we had a hearing at the House Labor
7 and Industry Committee back in December. I forget
8 the gentleman's name, but he was from your
9 Department. He said that we are in compliance.
10 Yet, there's no -- there's nothing to show that.
11 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We are in
12 compliance. I think Bob can speak to that.
13 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
14 Yeah, I'll be happy to address that.
15 Pennsylvania, since December 23rd, 2010,
16 Pennsylvania, along with 26 other states, the
17 District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands, all
18 have been granted continuing recognition by the
19 Federal Department of Labor. If we didn't have
20 that continuing recognition, the Federal
21 Government, A, would not recognize our programs,
22 and they do. B, they'd send a representative to
23 every one of our state apprenticeship and training
24 council meetings, he would not be allowed to
25 attend. And B, we would not have been given any
Key Reporters [email protected] 40
1 federal apprenticeship and training money if we
2 were not in compliance.
3 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: Can we, or can
4 I get some --
5 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR:
6 Representative.
7 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: -- of that,
8 some documentation to show that?
9 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Absolutely.
10 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: I would really
11 appreciate it and, perhaps, for the House Labor and
12 Industry Committee as well.
13 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
14 We'll distribute it through the Chair.
15 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: Thank you for
16 your testimony. Continue to look ahead five,
17 10 years in the future aligning jobs with
18 education.
19 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: One of the
20 committees that we have at Keystone Command Center
21 is the future of work. We're looking at beyond
22 five to 10 years.
23 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: Good.
24 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: It's part of what
25 we're looking at as well.
Key Reporters [email protected] 41
1 REPRESENTATIVE STRUZZI: All right.
2 Thank you.
3 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
4 you.
5 Representative Sanchez.
6 REPRESENTATIVE SANCHEZ: Thank you,
7 Mr. Chairman.
8 Up here, Mr. Secretary. Mr. Deputy
9 Secretary, thank you for being here today. Good
10 afternoon.
11 I wanted to share with you another story
12 of a business owner in Pennsylvania and see if you
13 agree with his thinking. This one from Mr. Mark
14 Bortman. He's the owner of Exact Solar in Yardley,
15 Pennsylvania, which is a leading installer of
16 residential and small commercial solar energy
17 systems. It's a very important segment for a
18 sustainable future.
19 His statement is: The current minimum
20 wage is bad for business. At the 7.25 minimum
21 wage, people are continually stressed and
22 struggling just to get by. We've seen that a
23 better-paid employee is a more happy productive
24 worker and saves us hiring and training costs.
25 At Exact Solar, we're all about
Key Reporters [email protected] 42
1 sustainability for the long term. Raising the
2 minimum wage will help the Pennsylvania economy.
3 And, incidentally, Exact Solar pays their entry
4 employees $15 per hour minimum wage.
5 Would you agree with those statements?
6 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yes. Yes, yes,
7 yes, yes, yes.
8 REPRESENTATIVE SANCHEZ: And I suspect
9 based on your earlier comments, you might --
10 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Right.
11 REPRESENTATIVE SANCHEZ: -- and thank
12 you.
13 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: One of the things
14 if I could add, I used to say, well, there's
15 dueling research. There isn't dueling research
16 anymore. The overwhelming, overwhelming amount of
17 research that's been done on minimum wage,
18 particularly since so many states have raised it
19 recently, indicates that businesses prosper,
20 communities prosper, employers and employees
21 prosper. It's a good thing for the economy to do
22 this. It makes good business sense to do this.
23 REPRESENTATIVE SANCHEZ: I agree, and
24 thank you so much.
25 I want to take you in just a slightly
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1 different direction with my remaining time, though
2 still related to protection of workers in
3 Pennsylvania. In his budget address, Governor Wolf
4 called on us to make a real investment to solve the
5 problem of lead paint, asbestos, and other harmful
6 substances in our school buildings. It's
7 intolerable that we allow these conditions to exist
8 and put our students and teachers at risk. But the
9 reality is, the public sector employees are also
10 exposed to dangerous conditions and don't have the
11 benefit of OSHA protections.
12 Our Chairman Harkins has introduced
13 House Bill 1082 which would extend safety
14 protections to public servants. What can the
15 Department do to currently help ensure that all
16 employees can work in safe environments, and would
17 you encourage support of the Harkins' bill to build
18 safer workplaces?
19 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We do support
20 bringing OSHA requirements to protect the safety of
21 our public workers. It's --
22 Again, I don't understand the opposition
23 to it. This is something that will extend the kind
24 of safety efforts that we've seen work in other
25 areas to public employees, and we're supportive.
Key Reporters [email protected] 44
1 REPRESENTATIVE SANCHEZ: Thank you very
2 much, sir.
3 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
4 you.
5 Next will be Representative Owlett.
6 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: Thank you for
7 joining us today. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for
8 your time here and the question.
9 I just want to talk about the GGO a
10 little bit and your proposed increase. I'm looking
11 at the budget for this year. It's a 16.91, almost
12 17 percent increase. Looking at your proposed
13 increase last year was 4 percent. Walk me through,
14 why are we at a 16 percent increase this year and a
15 4 percent increase last year?
16 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
17 Well, I think I can address that this way.
18 I met with our budget folks, our Bureau
19 of Financial Management, and they told me that most
20 of that significant increase is due to changes, to
21 the filled complement, vacancy mix, and salary
22 benefit factors.
23 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: So how many more
24 people will you be adding to your complement with
25 that 16 percent?
Key Reporters [email protected] 45
1 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
2 We're looking at probably increasing complement to
3 Bureau of Labor Law Compliance, the Office of Deaf
4 and Hard of Hearing; possibly PennSERVE. We also
5 want to build capacity, probably our Office of
6 Policy and maybe some other areas.
7 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: Would you be
8 able to give us a breakdown of personnel versus
9 benefits and increase in salaries for this?
10 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: I
11 would be happy to get with our financial folks and
12 either provide that to the Chair or to set up a
13 meeting where we could actually discuss it.
14 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: That would be
15 great and be really helpful to see kind of the
16 background of why that's such a big increase this
17 year. So, thank you.
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: If I could add one
19 piece to that. I think it's important for us to
20 remember that, I think it's -- I don't know the
21 exact figure. You probably have it, Bob,
22 94.2 percent or somewhere in that area of our money
23 is federal money. It's a very small amount of our
24 budget that comes from the state. Only about one
25 percent of the total federal budget -- or total
Key Reporters [email protected] 46
1 state budget.
2 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
3 That 5.8 of our entire budget is state dollars.
4 I also want to point out that we also
5 had an increase of about $300,000 in the new hire
6 program, which is extremely successful and very,
7 very good.
8 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: Yeah. I mean,
9 it's two and a quarter million dollars, so it's not
10 chump change. I mean, we're seeing cuts in other
11 areas. We saw cuts in agriculture. So I'm just
12 trying to look for as many dollars as we can to try
13 and make sure that we continue to serve everybody
14 well in our --
15 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: One of --
16 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: -- communities
17 too.
18 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: One of the other
19 reasons for that increase is E-Verify. We'll be
20 the primary agency, the agency who is supporting
21 that, and that's going to take resources.
22 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
23 you, Representative.
24 Next will be Representative Bullock.
25 REPRESENTATIVE BULLOCK: Good afternoon,
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1 gentlemen. I'm over here. So I have a few
2 questions for you, and I'll try to give them to you
3 upfront, but may follow up as your testimony
4 begins.
5 Starting with your own Department, I
6 would like to discuss your workplace diversity. I
7 did take a look at the state's human resources
8 website and did take some notes myself that you had
9 about 36 percent white males, 51 percent white
10 females, 9 percent minority females. The number
11 for minority men was too low to show, so I was
12 hoping you can share that number with me, and then
13 discuss any efforts you have done in the last year
14 to increase numbers particularly around the
15 minority male and minority female employees.
16 Second, I wanted to talk -- I'll let you
17 answer that and then I'll follow up. Go ahead.
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Okay. Yes, we have
19 made a concerted effort in our Department to --
20 around issues related to diversity. I can give you
21 the statistics that we have of the 3855 employees
22 that we have, 8 percent are African-American,
23 3 percent are Hispanic, 87 percent are white, one
24 percent Asian, one percent other. We have
25 61 percent of our staff are female and 19 percent
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1 of them are veterans.
2 I can tell you, personally, diversity
3 matters to me. One of the first promotions that we
4 made when I became Secretary two and a half years
5 ago was a person of color. We've hired two folks
6 on our leadership team that are people of color.
7 In our COM's office we have five women. Three of
8 them are women of color; one a recent hire. So it
9 matters to me personally.
10 I use a story quite a bit. When I was a
11 teacher, I was the only teacher in America that
12 loved bus duty. I loved morning bus duty because
13 the kids would come into this public middle school,
14 and they're all shapes, sizes and colors. They
15 were in wheelchairs. They're wearing burcas. They
16 had support animals. They didn't speak English.
17 And the first thing --
18 When I would look at this and I would
19 think, this looks like America. It always bothered
20 me that our teaching staff didn't look like
21 America. I'm not comfortable with the fact that
22 our staff at L&I doesn't reflect --
23 REPRESENTATIVE BULLOCK: What
24 Pennsylvania looks like.
25 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: -- what
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1 Pennsylvania and America looks like. It's a
2 priority for us.
3 REPRESENTATIVE BULLOCK: I appreciate
4 your -- your efforts there. In fact, sharing that
5 story, as we look at America, and we look at
6 Pennsylvania in particular, what I know is that,
7 cities like Philadelphia does reflect a lot what
8 America looks like. It is strong and diverse. And
9 with that diversity, we've been able to attract
10 strong businesses to our city.
11 In recent years we've seen growth from
12 Target and Comcast and MOM's Organic Supermarket
13 and Trader Joe's, and they're just continuously
14 growing. What I noticed that a lot of these large
15 companies have understood the importance of paying
16 their employees more than the minimum wage. That
17 minimum wage attracts good employees, keeps them
18 there, and makes Philadelphia competitive as a
19 border city.
20 One of those CEOs from MOM'S, which is
21 an organic supermarket in the City of Philadelphia,
22 talks about this. He says: Good business people
23 know that their most important asset is their
24 employees. A higher minimum wage is a high return
25 strategic investment. Our workforce is less
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1 stressed and more productive and engaged.
2 Our retention rates have soared over the
3 years, driving down training and hiring costs, and
4 longer-term employees also offer more expertise and
5 better customer service which helps increase
6 revenues, and customers love shopping at places
7 with engaged employees.
8 I think Mr. Nash from MOM's Organic
9 Market understands the importance of investing in
10 his employees, like many of the other employees in
11 -- employers in Philadelphia.
12 I also think that with an increase in
13 the minimum wage and that kind of an investment in
14 your employees, we can drive up diversity in those
15 markets and drive up diversity in those employers
16 and those companies.
17 Do you have any statistic, or are you
18 aware of how increased wages also supports
19 diversity in the workplace?
20 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, I know that
21 there's a disproportionate number of minority women
22 that are earning minimum wage, so raising the wage
23 is going to help everybody, particularly minority
24 women to break that cycle of poverty. So it's --
25 I struggle to answer these questions
Key Reporters [email protected] 51
1 because, to me it's common sense. It's difficult
2 to explain what's patently obvious sometimes. And
3 yes, raising the minimum wage will help minority
4 people get out of poverty.
5 REPRESENTATIVE BULLOCK: Thank you very
6 much. I appreciate your candid comments and
7 response to my questions.
8 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
9 you, Representative.
10 I want to note that we've been joined by
11 Representative Dush and the Majority Whip, Kerry
12 Benninghoff.
13 Next will be Representative James.
14 REPRESENTATIVE JAMES: Gentlemen, over
15 here to your right. Good afternoon. I want to
16 talk just for a moment about labor economic
17 statistics, if I may.
18 Recently your Department released
19 December employment situation, which I characterize
20 as having mixed news. Our labor force went up by
21 102,000 people. That's 1.6 percent over last year,
22 but the labor force -- Or excuse me, the
23 unemployment rate jumped to 4.5 percent in
24 Pennsylvania. I believe that ranks us number 44 in
25 the country.
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1 By adding 32,700 jobs over that 12-month
2 period, that's the least number of jobs in quite a
3 few years.
4 Some of the positive job gains, as may
5 have been mentioned before in the private sector
6 professions, professional business services.
7 However, trades, transportation, utility goods-
8 producing industries lost 9,000 jobs, down 1.1
9 percent. I wonder if you would please talk about
10 those trends, and especially the ones in the
11 goods-producing industries, basic industry, versus
12 the service sector industries where we're seeing
13 wage growth and what Pennsylvania can do to get the
14 economy to match the growth with the rest of the
15 country.
16 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We have seen some
17 uptick in the unemployment rate and some uptick in
18 the loss of manufacturing jobs. We still have a
19 record number of people working in Pennsylvania,
20 largest labor force we've ever had and more people
21 working.
22 There's several reasons for the decline
23 in manufacturing jobs: Foreign competition, impact
24 of tariffs, skills shortages that we've talked
25 about before, technological improvements. So
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1 there's -- We need to have our -- As we discussed
2 earlier with Representative Struzzi, make sure we
3 have a workforce that's ready for those jobs.
4 It's -- It's consistent with some other
5 national trends that we're following, so we're
6 watching it closely. But again, we're -- we're in
7 a pretty good place right now.
8 I don't know, Bob, if you want --
9 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: And
10 just to add, sometimes when that unemployment rate
11 goes up, it is because more people are looking for
12 jobs; more people are getting into the workforce.
13 So, sometimes -- most times it's a very
14 good thing when you have additional people looking
15 for work in the workforce looking for a job.
16 REPRESENTATIVE JAMES: Well, back in my
17 district they tell me we have over 200 jobs going
18 unfilled, so maybe you can steer some of those
19 102,000 out to western PA, if you would.
20 That's all I have for you. Thank you,
21 gentlemen.
22 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
23 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
24 you, Representative.
25 Now Representative Cephas.
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1 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: Thank you,
2 Chairman. Good to see you, Secretary.
3 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Good to see you,
4 Representative.
5 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: I have a series
6 of questions related to our apprenticeships and
7 training. One of my colleagues talked about a
8 workforce development crisis, and I wanted you to
9 speak to one aspect of this crisis through the lens
10 of apprenticeships in training.
11 As we've discussed the Labor and
12 Industry -- with Labor and Industry, we've invested
13 $7 million in apprenticeship programs. Can you
14 provide an update on how the apprenticeship and
15 training office is using these funds and what
16 results are we seeing; what kinds of fields and
17 careers is the office focusing on; as well as, can
18 you speak to the difficulty in retaining people in
19 these pathways because of our lack in the increase
20 in the minimum wage?
21 And I just want to give you an example
22 of that. When we talk about the investment in
23 direct care workers, that 1.2 million in training,
24 that is an example of a workforce development
25 pathway that's difficult to maintain individuals
Key Reporters [email protected] 55
1 in, again, because of the hard work that it takes,
2 but also because of the low wages that it pays.
3 So, can you speak to the additional
4 workforce development crisis as it relates to the
5 lack of an increase in minimum wage and attracting
6 qualified -- or just individuals, in general, into
7 these pathways?
8 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: There's a lot of --
9 a lot to unpack there, but I'll give it a try.
10 In 2016, the Governor created the
11 apprenticeship and training office with a focus on
12 providing those skills. This is before PAsmart,
13 before state dollars were in that.
14 As of January of this year, we have over
15 18,000 active registered apprentices and 832
16 registered apprenticeship programs. We have over
17 8,000 apprentices that have completed their
18 apprenticeship training and 160 new apprenticeship
19 programs. So, we have -- It's been a focus of the
20 Governor to provide those opportunities through
21 apprenticeship work and using federal dollars that
22 we have and then adding some of our PAsmart
23 dollars.
24 As I mentioned before, some of the
25 PAsmart dollars are being used for outreach to
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1 underserved communities, for things like child
2 care. I know we have an apprenticeship program
3 with 1199C in Philadelphia that works very well.
4 We're looking at things we can do with other health
5 care agencies, so...
6 One of the great things about these
7 apprenticeship programs is, I think the average
8 salary for someone finishing an apprenticeship
9 program is about $60,000.
10 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: Great.
11 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: That's a lot more
12 than minimum wage.
13 And they're -- While they're learning
14 they're earning, so they're leaving these
15 apprenticeship programs without the debt that my
16 daughters are paying for their college.
17 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: And I'm paying.
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: So it's -- The
19 opportunities are -- are there. They're better
20 than minimum wage jobs. The skills are necessary
21 so there are jobs available when they finish those
22 programs. So it is a priority of the
23 Administration.
24 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: Great.
25 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Bob, if you --
Key Reporters [email protected] 57
1 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: And I thank you
2 for that.
3 Could you also speak to the direct care
4 worker aspect and the minimum wage challenges that
5 that pipeline represents?
6 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: And we've had
7 several meetings with SEIU Healthcare, who are
8 leading the way and trying to raise the wage for
9 folks who are providing primary care, particularly
10 for, you know. As our population is aging, it's
11 going to be more and more important that we do
12 this, so we're looking at programs that we can
13 create working with SEIU to address that.
14 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: Great. Thank
15 you so much.
16 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
17 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: And
18 just to add, that 18,000 number is an all-time high
19 in Pennsylvania for the amount of registered
20 apprentices.
21 REPRESENTATIVE CEPHAS: Thank you.
22 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
23 you.
24 Next will be Representative Heffley.
25 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: Thank you.
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1 I thank you, Secretary, for being here
2 today. I just wanted to real quick just say that,
3 it's a wonderful time here in Pennsylvania. The
4 economy is booming. We're seeing unemployment
5 rates, I think, that they are as low as they were
6 in 1979.
7 As we've heard from many folks, there
8 are a lot of jobs out there that are unfilled.
9 There's opportunities for folks to fill those jobs.
10 The average weekly wage has been increasing for
11 workers across this Commonwealth at 3 percent a
12 year with this economy since 2016.
13 With that being said, unemployment. I
14 know several years ago they closed a lot of the
15 call centers; went through a transition. But yet,
16 I still, quite honestly, get a lot of people come
17 to my office, both employers complaining about the
18 process.
19 Recently, I had two employees that are
20 20 some years United Auto Workers at Mack. And
21 they were going -- waiting weeks and weeks to get a
22 call back from the Unemployment Center. We're
23 seeing, you know, historic low unemployment rates;
24 but yet, it seems like these hard-working
25 individuals are just finding it very difficult.
Key Reporters [email protected] 59
1 Quite honestly, talk about embarrassing.
2 It's embarrassing when people come to my office and
3 just screaming about how inefficiently the
4 Unemployment Compensation office is running. Folks
5 that have worked their whole lives and now are
6 reliant on these benefits that they paid into.
7 What is your office doing to streamline
8 and make it a little bit easier for people to
9 navigate that system and get the benefits that
10 they've earned?
11 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: When I became the
12 Secretary, it was two and a half years ago, our
13 number 1 -- number 1 priority was addressing the
14 issues in UC, and I think we've had a major
15 turnaround. I came right after that. The call
16 center was closed and the layoffs took place, and
17 Mr. O'Brien was the --
18 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: An individual
19 came to my office. Actually, we worked with him,
20 and it's a steady stream of these folks coming to
21 my office that are finding it very difficult to
22 deal -- to get their benefits that they've earned.
23 Just to get a call back from the unemployment.
24 I know that you've been there a while,
25 but this is recent. And, quite honestly, I don't
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1 have an answer for 'em.
2 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, the answer
3 is, we have and continue to make some real
4 progress. It took some time to dig out from the
5 hit that the agency took with the loss of some of
6 those -- the loss of the call center; the loss of
7 600 jobs. Those people were eventually brought
8 back, and everyone that wanted a job got jobs.
9 But, we took a hit. We have recovered from that
10 very well.
11 Our average call times, wait times are
12 consistent with what they were before that
13 happened. And with the benefits modernization
14 program that we're going through and improving our
15 -- and the technology that we use, we have chat
16 lines that we've created. We're very proud of the
17 work that we've done.
18 If you have constituents with specific
19 issues that are not getting calls back or having
20 trouble with any benefits situation, I'd be happy
21 to work with your office to see if we can help
22 them.
23 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: I will get you
24 specifics on those cases --
25 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
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1 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: -- because it's
2 very frustrating.
3 The other part of that, and kind of the
4 opposite side is even more frustrating is, I've met
5 with employers who are telling me the -- there's
6 been cases where they've had employees who just
7 never showed up for work for weeks on end and they
8 were then terminated, and then those employees
9 filed for unemployment benefits and received them.
10 What process is there in place to verify
11 that the referees are doing a thorough job in
12 vetting, because they're still hiring, advertising
13 for jobs. They've hired a person who just refuse
14 to come into work and now is collecting
15 unemployment on these companies, right, and they're
16 having to hire more people? We're -- They file
17 complaints.
18 What is the audit process for the
19 referees at these hearings to ensure that they are
20 following the proper guidelines?
21 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, that should
22 not -- Clearly, somebody who hasn't worked should
23 not be collecting unemployment.
24 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: I agree with
25 you a hundred percent.
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1 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: And if that's the
2 case, I would --I would again urge you to contact
3 our office for specifics.
4 Many of these cases are facts-specific.
5 Sometimes payments will be made and that will --
6 because of federal law we have certain guidelines
7 that we have to follow. And then we'll find out
8 that they should not have gotten that money and we
9 have to collect it back.
10 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: If somebody --
11 If an employer issues a complaint against a certain
12 referee, because it's one particular referee who
13 continues to hear the same cases all the time, they
14 have one employee who was let go for doing --
15 dealing drugs at the plant and is receiving
16 unemployment compensation. And yet, the same
17 referee -- And they filed appeals and it's never
18 gone through with it.
19 I'm just asking, what -- what can they
20 do -- what can your Department do to ensure that
21 this isn't happening anymore?
22 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: They should call me
23 directly. I -- There is -- That's inexcusable.
24 But I have to -- I know, because I -- I know our
25 staff, that the overwhelming majority, 99 point
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1 something percent of people who are collecting
2 unemployment compensation are doing it according to
3 the law.
4 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: Yes.
5 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We want to make
6 sure that in situations like that, we want to go
7 after those people. To be honest, most of the
8 fraud that we deal with in unemployment
9 compensation is on the part of employers. So, we
10 are -- we are an equal opportunity vendor in that
11 case.
12 (Cross talk).
13 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: I will --
14 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We go after both.
15 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: I will get you
16 the specifics on the referee. I just wanted to
17 make sure this isn't happening statewide.
18 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: I
19 would enjoy to continue the conversation.
20 Did those employers appeal --
21 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: Yes.
22 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: --
23 the individuals collecting unemployment?
24 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: Yes.
25 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: And
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1 they lost their appeal?
2 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: Yes.
3 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
4 Okay.
5 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: I mean, I'm not
6 making it up. I mean, they call me --
7 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: I'm
8 not saying you are.
9 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: -- and it's
10 embarrassing for me to have to sit there and listen
11 to what they're telling me, and that's why I want
12 to try to get it resolved. Thank you.
13 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: If I could make a
14 comment on one other thing you mentioned,
15 Representative, about wages. We looked -- We
16 looked this up. Wages in Pennsylvania have
17 increased, as you said, about 2.9 percent in '17.
18 3.1 percent in '18. But when you factor in
19 inflation, the buying power of that wage increase
20 is .6 percent in 2018, .7 percent in 2017.
21 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: We can make an
22 argument there. Whenever --
23 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR:
24 Representative.
25 REPRESENTATIVE HEFFLEY: -- wages
Key Reporters [email protected] 65
1 increases, inflation increases.
2 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: I'm
3 going to get a buzzer for you, I think. Can we --
4 Thank you.
5 Representative Schweyer.
6 REPRESENTATIVE SCHWEYER: Thank you,
7 Mr. Chairman. You're making me be on my best
8 behavior today. Thank you, sir. I appreciate
9 that.
10 Quickly, I want to revisit something
11 that the gentleman -- the good gentleman from
12 Bedford County actually mentioned. At the very
13 beginning of this hearing, gentleman, he talked
14 about the advisory board, talking about the
15 technological changes and those sorts of things.
16 Without putting words in your mouth, I
17 think the whole point of you including folks that
18 are impacted by your decisions every day are
19 because they're the ones that are gonna be most
20 affected. You don't want a top-down model. You
21 want something that is a little bit more bottom up.
22 I'm assuming that's correct.
23 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: One of the first
24 things I talked about when I came to the agency two
25 and a half years ago is that it's very important
Key Reporters [email protected] 66
1 that we remember to -- we're gonna do all the
2 things we need to do under the law and under the
3 policies we have and fill out the forms. But we
4 will always, always remember that there are real
5 people at the end of the process.
6 Particularly, at Labor and Industry
7 we're working with people who have been hurt on the
8 job, who've lost their jobs, who're dealing with
9 physical and cognitive disabilities that make it
10 difficult for them; dealing with safety at work.
11 So these are issues that affect people directly and
12 we're very conscience of that all the time.
13 REPRESENTATIVE SCHWEYER: I appreciate
14 that. Because, I think, as policymakers,
15 sometimes, we choose not to listen to the folks
16 that would be most impacted by our decisions, or in
17 this particular case, a lack of decision.
18 So I think following your lead there,
19 just from a management perspective, I got word from
20 a small business owner in the Jenkintown,
21 Philadelphia area, Michael O'Connor, who owns a
22 barber shop -- full-service barber shop, La
23 Barberia, and he says: We know that by paying fair
24 wages, our employees are happier and they stick
25 around providing the great service that keeps our
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1 customers coming back and recommending us to
2 others. When the minimum wage goes up, businesses
3 will see costly turnover go down.
4 Again, I just want to reiterate that I
5 really do appreciate the perspective of making sure
6 that we're listening to the folks who would be most
7 impacted. You've gotten -- You've gotten lauded
8 today, appropriately so, sir, for taking that same
9 tact with your employees. I think it's about time
10 the Legislature follows your lead and make sure we
11 listen to the folks that are -- that are seeking a
12 particular solution to the problem of low wages for
13 those at the lowest end of the socioeconomic
14 spectrum.
15 Changing tactics a little bit, your
16 Department was incredibly helpful to my region--I
17 represent the City of Allentown and the Lehigh
18 Valley--during the Mack truck strike, which was one
19 of the largest manufacturing strikes that we've had
20 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since the '80s;
21 maybe a little bit earlier. Several thousand of
22 Pennsylvanians were out on strike. When they came
23 back, it was a relatively short-lived work
24 stoppage.
25 Labor and management seems to be getting
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1 along very, very well right now. I've talked to
2 both sides. But there was a small layoff. It was
3 not directly related to the strike. It was just a
4 downturn. And your Department did an incredible
5 job of making sure that the 300 or so workers that
6 were laid off had access to your rapid response
7 team.
8 In the budget proposal, can you share a
9 little bit more about any other efforts that you're
10 having with rapid response? What are some of your
11 concerns? What are some of the things you may need
12 from us to be able to make sure that more displaced
13 workers have those opportunities?
14 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you for your
15 comments. I'm going to ask Bob to talk about it.
16 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
17 Absolutely. In 2019, rapid response had 350
18 different business interactions with businesses who
19 had notified us that they were having a downturn.
20 We've met -- We had over 314 informational
21 sessages (phonetic) and over 85 trade act benefit
22 right interviews. Our rapid response people do an
23 outstanding job.
24 Just two weeks ago there was a fire at a
25 facility on a Saturday afternoon. Monday morning
Key Reporters [email protected] 69
1 our rapid response people were on that site to
2 assist those folks. We have done -- They do a fine
3 job with the trade petitions, too. We have 38
4 trade petitions through the feds that have been
5 approved in 2019. That impacted close to 5,000
6 individuals who are now getting additional
7 benefits, additional training dollars, a variety of
8 things through the trade act. So our rapid
9 response people do a fabulous job.
10 REPRESENTATIVE SCHWEYER: Great. Thank
11 you.
12 So nothing else needed in this budget or
13 future? You're happy where you're at for those
14 efforts?
15 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
16 Yes.
17 REPRESENTATIVE SCHWEYER: Great. That's
18 all I've got.
19 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
20 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
21 you, Representative.
22 Next will be Representative Fritz.
23 REPRESENTATIVE FRITZ: Thank you,
24 Mr. Chairman.
25 And thank you, Mr. Secretary, and Mr.
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1 Deputy Secretary for joining us today.
2 Thanks to an economy hitting on all
3 cylinders, we are at a high water mark of
4 Pennsylvanians being gainfully employed. With this
5 high percentage of working households, child care
6 has become a top priority workforce development
7 focus for many employers.
8 So if you could kindly share with us
9 what funding is in the budget to address overcoming
10 this challenge for working families, and along
11 those lines, does the Department have any programs
12 or incentives for employers to offer child care on
13 site or in cooperation with a community partner?
14 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We don't have
15 anything specific right now. But I can tell you
16 that with the conversations we've had at the
17 Command Center -- And again, Gene Barr is there
18 from the Chamber, Team PA is there, along with
19 several cabinet agencies. Child care is one of the
20 barriers that we have identified, and we're looking
21 at what can we do? What can --
22 Partnerships is one of our favorite
23 words of Labor and Industry. We're looking at,
24 what can we do in partnership with private
25 industry. What can we do working with DHS? What
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1 can we do working with DCED to address that
2 concern? So it is something that we're looking at
3 closely. We don't have anything specific right now
4 to report. REPRESENTATIVE FRITZ: Is there
5 a model for onsite child care that you would look
6 for? Do you look at other states and study
7 phenomenas and trends there?
8 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We have looked --
9 We're looking at other states. We're looking at
10 what companies in Pennsylvania are doing. We're
11 having a third party come in and work with the
12 Command Center to look at what programs we could
13 come up with that would fit the criteria we are
14 talking about to help with the child care issue.
15 REPRESENTATIVE FRITZ: Continue to focus
16 on that. It's much appreciated. Thank you for
17 your time.
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
19 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
20 you, Representative.
21 Next will be Representative Donatucci.
22 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: Thank you,
23 Mr. Chairman.
24 And thank you, gentlemen, for being here
25 today. And here we are a year later. It's come
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1 and gone, and we're still talking about raising the
2 minimum wage. I mean, really? I'm also a firm
3 believer that raising the wage would diminish
4 turnover, which, in turn, would diminish training
5 new people, which would, in turn, save businesses
6 money, make people happy.
7 And I too have a business owner who has
8 raised the wage for his workers. He's the owner of
9 &Pizza (phonetic) in Philadelphia. He's located in
10 Center City and in University City. And he says,
11 when you take care of your people, they take care
12 of your customers and your business thrives. As a
13 result of fair wages, we've seen higher employee
14 productivity and retention. Our employee morale
15 has skyrocketed and with it our customer experience
16 and our bottom line. Our employees have become our
17 loudest brand ambassadors. Michael Lastoria.
18 Having said that, if inflation does go
19 up and people are making fair wages, when we
20 finally increase the minimum wage, does the
21 Governor believe we should index it to inflation?
22 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: The Governor's plan
23 would do just that. It would start at $12, and
24 over the three years, by 2025 I think, it would
25 reach $15. After that, I don't know. I don't
Key Reporters [email protected] 73
1 think it isn't tied to inflation after that, but it
2 does do it to get to $15.
3 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: Okay. Now
4 I'm gonna go into a whole different --
5 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Okay.
6 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: -- place, and
7 that's equal pay for equal work. The law hasn't
8 been changed since 1959. That's 61 years.
9 Statistics show that a white woman makes $0.09 to a
10 man. Black woman makes $0.63 to the dollar.
11 Latino it's $0.54 to the dollar. The experts say
12 it's going to take another 60 years. I'll be dead.
13 My daughter will be in her 90's.
14 Having said that, are there lawsuits
15 happening in Pennsylvania in this area? I know the
16 fines are only like $50, I think, if that happens.
17 Are they being levied and paid? And do you think
18 we need an equal pay commission to sort this whole
19 thing out?
20 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Well, yes. I think
21 -- whatever will work. I have three daughters.
22 This is an issue I take very personally. It's
23 ridiculous. Again, it's --
24 I have trouble verbalizing some of these
25 things because of the common sense in it. Why are
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1 those statistics there? It's just unfair. It
2 makes no sense. It's bad business sense. It's bad
3 economically.
4 Our agency does not have any say -- we
5 don't have any authority over those issues, unless
6 there is somebody not earning the wage they're
7 supposed to earn, then we can react to that. But
8 we don't have any --
9 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: You don't
10 have any statistics on that, like --
11 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I do not, but I'd
12 love to get some for you because I'd like to see it
13 myself.
14 But we're certainly in favor of that,
15 because it is -- it is right for workers and it is
16 right for the economy. It's right for my
17 daughters.
18 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: Okay. Since
19 I still have a green light, can we look at sick
20 time? I mean, I always say I don't want the flu
21 served with my meal. I don't think anybody else
22 does. When people go into places of business that
23 are sick, they put everybody else at risk of
24 getting sick. We do have the Coronavirus now. I
25 think we need to start worrying about this.
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1 Are there any statistics on businesses
2 that do have sick time and how it works with their
3 employees? Are they happier employees?
4 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I don't know I have
5 statistics or we have statistics on employees. But
6 I know that, right now, there's only 17 percent of
7 Pennsylvania workers that have access to any kind
8 of short-term disability or sick leave. I
9 shouldn't say this, something resembling family
10 medical leave.
11 When we did the work on the barriers at
12 the Command Center, that was one of them; having
13 access to sick days, because people who don't have
14 it, they will go to work sick. And if they don't
15 have that, there are probably other protections
16 that they don't have that we take for granted. So
17 they -- If they take a sick day, they lose those
18 dollars. If they take two sick days, they lose
19 that job.
20 We hear too many anecdotally stories of
21 people that leave their younger children home
22 because they have to go to work and they can't get
23 people to take care of them when the child is sick.
24 Yes, there is a paid family medical
25 leave, a piece of legislation I know that will be
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1 considered by the House and/or Senate. There have
2 been sick leave legislation -- there has been sick
3 leave legislation introduced in the past and it
4 hasn't worked.
5 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: It hasn't
6 gone anywhere.
7 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We would be
8 supportive, obviously, based on the details.
9 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: All right.
10 Thank you.
11 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
12 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
13 you, Representative.
14 Next will be Representative Grove.
15 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Thank you.
16 Secretary, good to see you.
17 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: How are you?
18 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: First, I want to
19 start off, prevailing wage law gives Labor and
20 Industry sole authority for oversight of that,
21 correct?
22 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
23 That is correct.
24 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Okay. Thank you.
25 Next, I asked -- last year I asked a few
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1 questions about the performance of our work
2 programs. I was sent, I think, these two books.
3 Neither of them really answer my questions, but
4 we'll go through the data in them.
5 Page 17 of Workforce Development Update,
6 Fall 2018, there's a program in there called the
7 Work Innovation Fund Grant Micro-Credentials, is a
8 6-million-dollar program. Pennsylvania received
9 $6 million of $34 million. The three years that
10 were in here, number of participants enrolled are
11 767, and the number of participants that begin
12 training were 748, about a 19 percent drop. And
13 then number of participants that completed training
14 were 400. That's about a 47 percent completion
15 rate.
16 Do we know what happened to the
17 recipients that did not complete training?
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I'm not familiar
19 with that program. I would certainly --
20 What I'd like to do, Representative, if
21 you weren't satisfied with the answers that you
22 got, please reach out to my office and we'll meet
23 with you. You can come see us, we'll come see you,
24 to answer those questions.
25 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Generally, are we
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1 actually matching individuals up with jobs when
2 they get done with programs? That's the general
3 question.
4 But this one specifically, 448 people
5 were credentialed out of 768. That's only
6 58 percent were actually credentialed going through
7 that program.
8 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I'm not familiar
9 with the specifics of that program. And again, I
10 would encourage you to reach out to our office.
11 And if you don't get answers that you want -- You
12 know, we want to give you the correct answers to
13 answer your question. You may not like the answer.
14 We may not like the answer, but we certainly do
15 want to answer the question.
16 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Okay.
17 Within your annual report 2018, your
18 WIOA programs, there's -- there's under WIOA
19 program, Title 4, vocation rehabilitation,
20 participants served, 28,000; participants exited,
21 13,619. What's your definition of participants
22 exited?
23 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: I
24 have nothing on that. I have nothing on it.
25 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Again, I'm not
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1 ready to answer that question. But I would love to
2 do the research and sit down and answer the
3 question with you.
4 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: And that's how
5 all your WIOA programs, your Title 4s are
6 participants served and participants exited. How
7 many -- Like, what is that? Was it a success, not
8 success? Do you still have them trapped, and they
9 didn't get to exit your room?
10 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I don't think it
11 was that.
12 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: I hope not. I
13 saw -- I was thinking are these poor people --
14 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: What I'd like to do
15 --
16 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: -- 13,004 people
17 still stuck.
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Our executive
19 director of the State Workforce Board, James
20 Martini, is responsible for putting that report
21 together, with a lot of input from stakeholders,
22 from the State Board. It's approved by the State
23 Board. So I would love to set up a meeting with
24 you and Mr. Martini and myself and anyone else that
25 you'd like to have there.
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1 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Just kind of
2 going through more data, you have the appendices on
3 local performance for programs in 2017. I mean, a
4 lot of this book is kind of individual stories
5 versus broad programmatic reviews of how successful
6 we are and how many people signed up for training;
7 You know, your negotiated level versus your actual
8 performance; you know, some kind of look good, and
9 then there's this new measurable grade of actual
10 performance of skilled grade gains; people that
11 actually gained skills. Statewide is only
12 34.1 percent.
13 Some areas high success rate,
14 72.2 percent in the northeast region; some as low
15 as one percent. So, kind of looking through the
16 data, some good, kind of some bad. But, generally,
17 if we're paying for it, we should be seeing people
18 connected to workforce.
19 You know, we're spending a lot of money,
20 right? What's your total budget on workforce
21 development?
22 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
23 Total?
24 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Yes.
25 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: Is
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1 about 453 million.
2 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: We're spending
3 close to half a billion dollars. Yet, we have open
4 jobs; high-paying open jobs.
5 You know, I heard a lot about -- today
6 about minimum wage. We have high-paying open jobs
7 and we're spending half a billion dollars on
8 workforce development programs.
9 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Let me clarify
10 that, add one piece. Over 97 percent of that are
11 federal dollars. The state's input into that is
12 12.56 million.
13 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: I don't care if
14 it's state.
15 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I know you don't.
16 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: We're spending
17 about half a billion --
18 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: And I understand
19 that.
20 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: And, by the way,
21 you know, that's federal dollars. If we're not
22 producing -- The only reason we have a lot of data
23 is because they're federal programs. I mean, they
24 require the data search. I mean --
25 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: And we provide that
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1 data in the manner that they ask for it.
2 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Yeah. And, by
3 the way, some of our programs, I mean, I'm not sure
4 in industry partnerships we have robust data on
5 success. I haven't seen that.
6 So, getting data on how successful we
7 are is very important, because we want to make sure
8 that we're actually getting people into high-paying
9 jobs that I heard repeatedly in this room that are
10 open.
11 We just had Glatfelter from York County
12 leave. They went to North Carolina. It was
13 heartbreaking because they've been in business for
14 over a hundred years in Pennsylvania. I'm starting
15 to see a lot more jumps to other states, like
16 Texas, Florida; individuals leaving the state to
17 those areas.
18 We've got to battle back, and making
19 sure we match up people with high-paying jobs that
20 are there I think are key, and getting the data on
21 success I think will help drive those decisions.
22 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
23 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
24 you, Representative.
25 Next will be Representative Flynn.
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1 REPRESENTATIVE FLYNN: Thank you,
2 Mr. Chairman.
3 How are you doing, Secretary Oleksiak?
4 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: How are you,
5 Representative?
6 REPRESENTATIVE FLYNN: Good to see you
7 again.
8 A recent study by Stephen Herzenberg of
9 Keystone Research, states that the City of
10 Philadelphia alone loses between 25 and $30 million
11 every year due to their underground economy in the
12 construction trades. This seems to be a system
13 where employers issue employees 1099's and use
14 other unruly business practices. What is your
15 administration doing to combat this issue?
16 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Deputy Secretary
17 O'Brien will speak to that.
18 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: You
19 are correct. There are problems with independent
20 contractors. I'm happy to tell you that the Bureau
21 of Labor Law Compliance is doing the best job that
22 they can with the staff that they have.
23 To give you an idea, the four years of
24 the Corbett Administration, they only found six
25 contractors in violation in four years and $17,500
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1 in fines. That's not Bob O'Brien talking. That's
2 right up on Labor and Industry's website in the
3 yearly report.
4 The Wolf Administration, we have found
5 hundreds and hundreds of contractors who have
6 violated it, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands
7 in fines and penalties. Just this year alone -- I
8 got the number here. Hold on. Just this year
9 alone, over $534,000 in fines and penalties to
10 178 employers that were violating -- that were --
11 had their workers on construction sites as
12 independent contractors and they weren't. They
13 were their employees.
14 REPRESENTATIVE FLYNN: I don't think
15 that's a very good report card, being that this
16 report says 25 to $30 million every year as being
17 billed from the taxpayers.
18 Quick question. How many inspectors do
19 you have addressing this particular issue?
20 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
21 Currently, statewide we have 28.
22 REPRESENTATIVE FLYNN: 28. Okay.
23 Do you have any other plans for the
24 future? More inspectors?
25 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: We
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1 certainly have been working with the Governor's
2 Office and the Office of the Budget to increase
3 that complement to hire more labor law
4 investigators, that is correct.
5 REPRESENTATIVE FLYNN: Thank you.
6 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
7 you, Representative.
8 Next will be Representative Lawrence.
9 REPRESENTATIVE LAWRENCE: Thank you,
10 Mr. Chairman.
11 Gentlemen, I appreciate you being here
12 today very much. I know it's been a long
13 afternoon, so thank you.
14 I'd like to ask a little bit about how
15 L&I helped connect folks who are looking for work
16 to available jobs in the agricultural sector.
17 So, in my area in Chester County,
18 mushrooms are big business. The American Mushroom
19 Institute near Kennett Square tells me that there
20 are a thousand open positions in Chester County
21 alone for harvesting and other jobs on mushroom
22 farms. These are year-round positions that start
23 around $15 an hour and go up to $25 an hour or
24 more, with benefits, such as harvesting. There's
25 open positions in HVAC and other support roles as
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1 well.
2 What is L&I doing to help connect
3 workers who are looking for work to these positions
4 in the agricultural sector?
5 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yeah, we have --
6 Through our CareerLinks, and we do have CareerLinks
7 throughout the state, including Chester County, the
8 available jobs are there for people who do come in.
9 People who are on unemployment, for example, are
10 required to check into the CareerLinks.
11 We have worked with the Department of
12 Agriculture on other issues; not on this particular
13 issue. I'd be happy to meet with the Secretary and
14 see if there aren't more specific things that we
15 can do either through the CareerLinks or through
16 other training opportunities or job opportunities
17 that we have.
18 REPRESENTATIVE LAWRENCE: Anything you
19 can do, I can tell you, I would greatly appreciate
20 it. I know there's a number of folks across
21 Chester County who would appreciate it.
22 I mean, just to be very candid,
23 mushrooms don't rot like we think of other
24 agricultural products rotting. But there's the
25 equivalent of what we would call the third flush,
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1 rotting in the house and the growing houses because
2 there's simply not enough people available to pick
3 the mushrooms.
4 There are mushroom growers who have gone
5 to Maryland, and they've built mushroom houses in
6 Maryland because they're finding more success
7 finding workers just over the line, for whatever
8 reason in Maryland. I know a grower that provides
9 housing at a dollar a day. I know another grower
10 that's looking in bringing in prisoners from the
11 next county over to help pick mushrooms.
12 Again, these are -- these are not
13 minimum wage jobs. These are --
14 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Right.
15 REPRESENTATIVE LAWRENCE: They start at
16 $15 an hour with benefits, retirement, health
17 benefits. So, anything L&I can do to -- We've
18 worked with the local chamber and a number of
19 different organizations to try and fill these jobs.
20 And I'm open to any ideas you have and would love
21 to work with you on it.
22 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Two I can think of
23 right now. I will definitely reach out to
24 Secretary Redding and see if there are some things
25 that we can do together.
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1 I'd be happy to meet with some of the
2 employers to see, you know, are they aware of
3 what's available to CareerLinks? Many of our
4 CareerLinks have job fairs that they do with
5 employers to get people into those jobs that are
6 available.
7 So I'd be happy to meet with you, with
8 the employers, with the CareerLinks folks in
9 Chester County, with our workforce people to see
10 what we can do.
11 REPRESENTATIVE LAWRENCE: Thank you very
12 much.
13 And thank you, Mr. Chairman.
14 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
15 you, Representative.
16 Next will be Representative Davis.
17 REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS: Thank you,
18 Mr. Chairman.
19 Mr. Secretary, thank you for being with
20 us this afternoon.
21 Since 1993, and through six different
22 administrations, the Strategic Early Warning
23 Network has assisted over 1200 small to
24 medium-sized manufacturing firms, while saving or
25 adverting a loss of almost 35,000 family-
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1 sustaining jobs here in Pennsylvania.
2 Do you agree that SEWN's Layoff Aversion
3 Services are essential and should continue to be
4 made available at no cost to hard-hit manufacturing
5 businesses throughout Pennsylvania?
6 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
7 Yes.
8 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Yes. That's -- We
9 have met with representatives from that agency.
10 They have an excellent program, and we're very
11 supportive of the work they do.
12 REPRESENTATIVE LAWRENCE: Thank you.
13 As you're aware, SEWN is funded through
14 the Department of Labor and Industry using federal
15 rapid response dollars to prevent or reduce job
16 layoffs. I believe this program is highly
17 effective, as you do too from your answer.
18 Is it your intent to continue to support
19 this program moving forward?
20 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
21 Yes, it is. It's competitively bid through the
22 grant process. SEWN was the only one who applied
23 for the grant, so they will be the recipient and
24 they will continue to do the work for the next
25 calendar year.
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1 REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS: Thank you.
2 Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Again, thank
3 you for being here. I look forward to working with
4 your guys to improve SEWN and the work that you
5 guys are doing at Labor and Industry.
6 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
7 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
8 you. In addition to our Appropriation Committee
9 members, we also welcome the respected Chairs of
10 the standing committees. We'll allow them an
11 opportunity to ask questions as well. So we will
12 start with Chairman Harkins of Labor and Industry.
13 REPRESENTATIVE HARKINS: Thank you.
14 Thank you both for showing today and
15 answering all our questions.
16 The Department received a lot of
17 feedback and comment about the overtime
18 regulations. Can you tell us about some of the
19 misconceptions that people had about overtime, and
20 who is eligible to receive it, as well as, how many
21 Pennsylvanians will benefit from this new
22 regulation?
23 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We did receive a
24 lot of comments, and there is a lot of
25 misunderstanding. People assume that salaried
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1 employees cannot receive overtime, and that's just
2 not the case.
3 There are dollar thresholds, and there's
4 also a duties test that, if they perform
5 administrative-type duties, then they're -- they're
6 considered managers. But then they have to be
7 above, you know, or below the threshold. It's a
8 very confusing situation.
9 Some employers we found were doing it
10 wrong unintentionally and then fix it themselves.
11 So, we want to -- As soon as these are -- go
12 through the process they need to go through, we
13 have an education program planned to reach out to
14 employers, to reach out to different labor groups
15 to make sure that they understand what the rules
16 are.
17 We know that based on -- If the
18 regulations that were approved by IRRC, the
19 Independent Regulatory Review Commission, would
20 benefit 143,000 Pennsylvanians that would earn
21 overtime that they're not earning now.
22 REPRESENTATIVE HARKINS: Thank you.
23 I'd also like to make a moment to extend
24 my appreciation for all your hard work with the
25 apprentice programs across the state. As I
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1 traveled across the state in the last year and a
2 half with that program, I don't think I found any
3 kink in the road at all with anything involving
4 that.
5 It's in the developmental stages.
6 There's a lot of questions being asked, but I
7 really appreciate the way everybody is handling it
8 with L&I. Thank you.
9 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
10 Thank you.
11 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you.
12 I should mention, and I'm looking for
13 the press release that I have here, we just
14 received an award from NASWA, the National
15 Association of State Workforce Agency, for our
16 apprenticeship work, just last week. We're very
17 proud of that. We are happy to be working for a
18 Governor that sees a value in it.
19 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
20 you, Chairman.
21 And Chairman Cox, the Majority Chairman
22 of the Labor and Industry Committee.
23 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Thank you.
24 I wanted to make sure I understood some
25 of the testimony that I'm reading here from your
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1 written testimony. You stated, and you gave an
2 exact amount, Secretary O'Brien, that $534,000 in
3 Act 72 compliance.
4 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: I
5 believe that's correct.
6 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Okay. And then
7 later in the testimony it talks about the Bureau of
8 Occupational and Industrial Safety, and it appears
9 that they were responsible for bringing in
10 18.85 million in fees?
11 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Those are -- Yeah.
12 They're fees that come through elevator
13 inspections, boiler inspections. What else, Bob?
14 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
15 Rotary inspection, boiler inspections,
16 reinspections. Also, we have -- you can pay an
17 additional fee and get an expedited inspection.
18 All that money goes into that fund.
19 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Okay. And are
20 there, what I'll call fines, are those built into
21 any of those numbers? In other words, lack of
22 compliance, we've heard about some of the employers
23 who aren't reporting, aren't classifying
24 individuals, et cetera. How are those --
25 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: The
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1 Act 72, the Construction Workplace
2 Misclassification, all of that money goes into the
3 General Fund. The Department gets none of that.
4 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Does anything
5 outside of Act 72 provide compliance, fines or
6 fees, those types of dollars?
7 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: For
8 the contractor misclassification?
9 REPRESENTATIVE COX: For anything else.
10 Does the Department receive any types of fines or
11 fees when noncompliance is occurring?
12 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: Are
13 you talking about on construction sites, or are you
14 talking about BOIS?
15 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Anything other than
16 Act 72.
17 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: We
18 have the ability, through the fiscal code, to draw
19 down the fees for the Bureau of Occupational and
20 Industrial Safety to help with the elevator and
21 boiler inspection employees.
22 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Okay. When an
23 employer -- When you find an employer is not
24 reporting -- or is not following minimum wage law,
25 or they're not following existing overtime
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1 regulations, et cetera, do you have any ability to
2 assess?
3 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
4 Through the minimum wage law, yes. Minimum wage
5 and overtime law, we assess fines and penalties.
6 But here again, those fines and penalties that we
7 receive go into the General Fund.
8 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Can you give me a
9 dollar amount for fines, fees, penalties, et
10 cetera, that came from things like minimum wage act
11 enforcement and -- any of the other things?
12 There's a lack of numbers here in the written
13 testimony. I'm looking to --
14 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN: For
15 the Child Labor Act, we received approximately
16 $73,000 in fines and penalties. When I say we,
17 that money goes into the General Fund.
18 Minimum wage and overtime, fines
19 collected is approximately $1.7 million. Here
20 again, the Department doesn't receive any of it.
21 Wage payment collection, fines
22 collected, approximately $2.3 million. Here again,
23 the Department does not see any of that.
24 REPRESENTATIVE COX: What was the last
25 category there?
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1 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
2 Wage payment and collection law.
3 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Okay.
4 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We can get all of
5 this information, certainly, and there are others.
6 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Right, right.
7 This is a good starting point. Just
8 glancing at this, I've got over $4 million in
9 enforcement efforts; not to mention the
10 18.85 million in inspection for the Bureau of
11 Occupational and Industrial Safety, which I realize
12 that's -- a lot of that is just making sure the
13 elevators are operating.
14 Where my concern lies is, I have seen
15 this happen in my years here as a legislator. I've
16 seen agencies move from what I'll call compliance
17 helpers to being compliant driven. And the stories
18 are out there and the different agencies have
19 gained reputations in the communities and
20 throughout Pennsylvania on this.
21 But I'm increasingly hearing from
22 employers that are telling me, they're not telling
23 me where I'm going wrong. They're just coming and
24 whacking me. The Department of Agriculture
25 historically has had a phenomenal reputation for
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1 what I'll call embracing the constituent, if you
2 will, and saying, look, here's where you're going
3 wrong and here's how we're gonna help bring you
4 into compliance so you can thrive.
5 Businesses that I'm speaking with, and
6 my colleagues are speaking with, are telling me
7 that's not happening in the Department of Labor;
8 that it's more of a hammer. It's not an embrace
9 of, hey, let's help you figure out where you went
10 wrong with the Child Labor Law. These numbers, I'd
11 be curious to know not just what the numbers are,
12 but how much they've risen over the years. So I'd
13 love to see a full report on that.
14 As Labor Chairman, I intend to follow up
15 with a hearing, if necessary.
16 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We can make sure
17 you get that information.
18 REPRESENTATIVE COX: It's just that
19 environment that I'm really, really concerned
20 about. Employer after employer is telling me
21 there's an adversarial relationship. That's not
22 how we bring businesses to Pennsylvania. That's
23 not how we keep them here.
24 We need to do a better job of bringing
25 them into compliance without smacking them with the
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1 fees and the fines. We need to help them thrive
2 rather than figuring out ways to punish them when
3 they have a misstep. Arguably, you have a team of
4 lawyers that helps you guys figure out the ins and
5 outs of legislation. Businesses trying to comply,
6 they don't have that luxury.
7 We need to do better reaching out to
8 them in the way the Department of Agriculture has
9 historically done. I'd love to hear your plans for
10 that happening.
11 I'm hoping the numbers I'm seeing for
12 additional compliance inspectors, and things like
13 that, I'm hoping that you'll take those roles and
14 turn them into compliance officers that are not
15 writing the fines and fees and looking for the
16 ah-ha moment, but rather are saying, here's how you
17 come along, and here's how you become a compliant
18 business in Pennsylvania.
19 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We are not in the
20 business of discouraging business in Pennsylvania.
21 That's not what we want to do. We understand --
22 We don't write the laws. We do apply
23 them. We understand that we do have some latitude,
24 but we have to do what we are legally compelled to
25 do. We certainly want to create the right working
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1 relationship with businesses.
2 You know, we're in it to protect the
3 good guys. We want to make sure that people that
4 do it right have a fair and level-playing field.
5 Those who are doing it wrong, if they're willing to
6 correct their ways, that -- that's great. We want
7 to see that happen. But we are going to enforce
8 the laws that we have before us.
9 REPRESENTATIVE COX: Well, on the issue
10 of not writing the laws, I trust that would also
11 apply to the overtime regulations that go far and
12 above what I believe the statutory authority is.
13 We've expressed concerns about that. I won't go
14 into -- some who've talked about that on some
15 level. That exceeds both the intent of the
16 legislation that authorizes regulations. It goes
17 over and above what the federal changes have made.
18 And I think you have exceeded your authority in
19 that capacity. So that is my comment on that.
20 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: We're very
21 supportive of the work we did, obviously, with the
22 overtime regs. If the courts want to tell us
23 otherwise, we'll see where that goes. But we're
24 very comfortable with the work we did. Very happy
25 with the work we did on the regs.
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1 EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY O'BRIEN:
2 And, Chairman Cox, the Bureau of Labor Law
3 Compliance does do outreach; does do visits; does
4 educational things. We'll put together a list of
5 the educational things that they've done over the
6 years also for your review.
7 REPRESENTATIVE COX: I would suggest
8 that if the fines and fees and so forth are
9 increasing year after year.
10 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR:
11 Chairman.
12 REPRESENTATIVE COX: This is my final
13 comment, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
14 I would suggest if the fines and fees
15 are increasing year after year, that those outreach
16 efforts are not significant enough. If you have
17 significant outreach efforts, you should see a
18 diminishing number of people being fined and hit
19 with fees.
20 Thank you.
21 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: I would disagree
22 with that, but I'd be happy to talk to you aside
23 from that. I think it's an indication of the work
24 we're doing; the fine work that we're doing.
25 ACTING MAJORITY CHAIRMAN DUNBAR: Thank
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1 you. And, Chairman, thank you. I'm sure you can
2 have continued conversation.
3 I want to take an opportunity to thank
4 Secretary Oleksiak and Deputy Secretary O'Brien for
5 their time. We are all through for the day, and
6 we're going to adjourn. And we will reconvene
7 tomorrow at 10:00 o'clock with the state police.
8 Thank you.
9 SECRETARY OLEKSIAK: Thank you all.
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1 C E R T I F I C A T E
2
3 I, Karen J. Meister, Reporter, Notary
4 Public, duly commissioned and qualified in and for
5 the County of York, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
6 hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and
7 accurate transcript, to the best of my ability, of
8 a public hearing taken from a videotape recording
9 and reduced to computer printout under my
10 supervision.
11 This certification does not apply to any
12 reproduction of the same by any means unless under
13 my direct control and/or supervision.
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