Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald talks to PublicSource in his Allegheny County Courthouse offices on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, in downtown Pittsburgh. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
County Council’s ordinance would have required a $20 hourly wage for all county employees by 2026.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
A judge invalidated a county ordinance passed this summer that created a pay floor for county employees, siding with outgoing Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and seemingly placing a limit on the power of the County Council, which approved the law.
Council voted 10-5 in June to approve the measure and require the county to pay all of its workers at least $18 per hour in 2024, $19 per hour in 2025 and $20 per hour in 2026. Fitzgerald vetoed the ordinance, saying only the executive had the authority to set wages. Council used its two-thirds majority to override his veto, and Fitzgerald then asked the judicial system to endorse his view that the law violated the county charter’s allocation of power.
Fitzgerald, in a statement, said the decision answered an “important legal question that would have a lasting impact upon future executives and councils.”
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