Wolf Makes New Pitch for Higher Minimum Wage

By Kim Jarrett/The Center Square

HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Wolf made his sixth plea to state legislators to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from the federal rate of $7.25 an hour to $12 an hour this year, with a goal of reaching $15 an hour by 2026. Wolf called the state’s minimum wage “embarrassingly low” during a news conference Tuesday.

“There’s momentum to finally raise the wage, but momentum in the Capitol doesn’t put food on the table in workers’ homes,” Wolf said. “Too many workers are still struggling to get by because Pennsylvania hasn’t raised the minimum wage in more than a decade.”

State Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin, compared the situation to Rosa Parks, a black woman who refused to move to the back of a bus so a white person could sit down during the Civil Rights movement.

“Pennsylvania, or rather the House Republicans, are treating minimum wage like a back-of-the-bus issue,” Kim said. “I know most minimum wage workers are tired and fed up, too. We are not going to let these workers sit in the back anymore.”

The Senate passed a compromise minimum wage bill in late 2019 by a bipartisan vote of 42-7 that would have raised the minimum wage to $8 an hour by July 1 and $9.50 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022. The bill never made it to the House floor.

Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, criticized House leaders for not bringing the bill to a vote. “The unwillingness of Pennsylvania House leaders merely to consider our bipartisan minimum wage legislation is a sad commentary on their commitment to the working people of the Commonwealth,” Tartaglione said.

Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Peach Bottom, said House Republicans are committed to moving low-wage workers into better jobs and their policies have improved salaries.

“Pennsylvania employers currently have more openings than qualified people to fill them,” Cutler, the House majority leader, said in a statement in response to Wolf’s news conference Tuesday. “The policies we worked on this session with the governor have helped increase access to affordable and high-quality job training, so Pennsylvanians from all walks of life can find a fulfilling career.”

A $15 an hour minimum wage will lead to job losses, Cutler said, saying it has been shown in study after study. “We stand committed to helping Pennsylvanians earn as much as possible, but not if it means losing the very jobs workers rely upon,” Cutler said.

But Pennsylvania is losing workers, according to Wolf, because wages are higher in many other states, including those on the commonwealth’s border.

“Pennsylvanians shouldn’t earn less than workers in West Virginia, Ohio, or New Jersey for the same job,” Wolf said. “We are a state known for our tremendous work ethic, but when jobs don’t pay enough, people can’t afford basics like food, housing, child care and transportation. That should be unacceptable to all of us.”

Wolf is also proposing changes to the state’s overtime rules that will require employers to pay overtime to full-time salaried workers who make less than $45,000 by 2022. If approved by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission, the change will affect 82,000 workers, Wolf said.