In the near future, I will introduce legislation that will raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $15/hour on January 1, 2026 and provide yearly cost of living-adjusted increases thereafter. This legislation also sets the tipped wage in Pennsylvania to 70% of the minimum wage.
Pennsylvania has not updated its minimum wage since 2006, and as a result, our state maintains the lowest allowable rate in the country at $7.25/hr – the federal minimum. 30 states, including many with a lower cost of living, have a higher minimum wage than Pennsylvania and 23 states will increase their minimum wages even further beyond our Commonwealth in 2025. Moreover, each of our neighboring states boasts a higher minimum wage than the Commonwealth, leaving Pennsylvania as the least attractive labor market in the Mid-Atlantic. Tellingly, $7.24/hr is the actual definition of a poverty-level wage for a childless adult under the Department of Health and Human Services’ Poverty Guidelines and is even further below this threshold when factoring in children. Keeping people in poverty is not how the Commonwealth moves forward – it is clear our current wage is immoral and unjustifiable.
Furthermore, minimum wage reform will make a difference in the lives of over 400,000 Pennsylvanians. According to the Department of Labor & Industry’s latest minimum wage report, 67,800 of our fellow citizens survive on the bare minimum and an additional 335,000 Pennsylvanians rely on hourly wages between $7.26 and $12. Many minimum wage and near-minimum wage workers fill vital full-time positions in childcare, home health, retail, and hospitality yet the compensation for their hard work is often not sufficient to afford basic necessities such as rent, transportation, food, and prescriptions.
By establishing a dignified wage, our legislation will help these citizens obtain the sustainable living everyone deserves. In total, more than 850,000 Pennsylvanians who make below $15/hr will benefit in just year one of this proposal and in turn, the Commonwealth will save tax dollars to reinvest in critical areas of need as many of us will no longer require public assistance to get by.
Accordingly, our legislation also modernizes protections and enforcement standards in the law, by:
- Allowing municipalities to set a local minimum wage greater than the state minimum wage;
- Guarding against wage theft by ensuring that the Department of Labor & Industry may recover wages and penalties for all violations of the act, not only when a complaint is filed;
- Increasing monetary penalties for violations, which in some cases have not been updated since 1968;
- Bringing enforcement in line with the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act by allowing workers to receive damages, in addition to unpaid wages; and
- Enshrining in law that gratuities are the sole property of the employee.
Pennsylvanians need a dignified wage, not a wage synonymous with poverty. Please join me in sponsoring this vital legislation.
Statutes/Laws affected: Printer's No. 685 (Apr 28, 2025): P.L.11, No.5