Gov. Tom Wolf joined state lawmakers and a Montgomery County business on Thursday to call on the Legislature to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour with a path to $15, calling the state’s current minimum wage embarrassingly low and disrespectful to workers.
”The fact that Pennsylvania’s minimum wage hasn’t increased in 15 years is an embarrassment,” the governor said. “It’s an insult to hardworking Pennsylvanians, and it means businessmen and communities in Pennsylvania are getting left behind.”
Wolf’s plan increases the wage floor to $12 per hour on July 1, with annual increases of 50 cents until reaching the target $15 per hour on July 1, 2028. That would more than double the current state minimum wage of $7.25.
Nearly 25% of workers in this state — 1.5 million people — would get a boost in pay at $15 per hour, improving their ability afford basic needs like housing, groceries, transportation and child care.
Effective Jan. 31, the minimum wage for Commonwealth employees will increase to $15 per hour. President Joe Biden recently set a $15 minimum wage for federal employees.
Wolf has proposed a minimum wage increase each year he has been in office. This time he’s urging the Republican-controlled General Assembly to pass bills sponsored by state Sen. Christina Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, or state Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin, to create the $12 minimum wage that moves to $15.
Montgomery County raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2021 for all 2,800 of the municipality’s full- and part-time workers.
Ten states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws that will phase to a $15 an hour minimum, and nearly half of the states will raise the floor wage this year. Twenty-nine states have a higher minimum wage than Pennsylvania, including Delaware ($10.50); Maryland ($12.20); New Jersey ($13); New York ($13.20); Ohio ($9.30); and West Virginia ($8.75).
According to the MIT Living Wage calculator, a single adult in Pennsylvania needs to earn $13.39 per hour to support themselves and a single adult with one child needs $27.57 per hour to support their family.
”We’ve watched the buying power of Pennsylvanian’s minimum wage plummet over the past decade,” said House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia. “Raising the minimum wage is about valuing Pennsylvania’s workforce, ensuring fair pay and dignity for hard work, and helping more women — including countless essential workers — emerge from poverty.”
