If you need just one reason to vote for a Democrat in this year’s Pennsylvania statehouse elections, it is this: the minimum wage. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has been stuck at the unconscionable sum of $7.25 per hour since 2009. That also happens to be the Federally-mandated minimum, which means that Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is the lowest it could legally be. In fact, Pennsylvania has not independently raised the minimum for 20 years, since 2006. The Pennsylvania House, controlled by the Democrats, has risen to the challenge, and has passed an increase to the minimum wage three times. The Senate, however, narrowly controlled by the Republicans, has refused to act each time, leaving the minimum where it is.
The latest bill, H.B. 2189, increases the state minimum to eleven dollars ($11) an hour beginning January 1, 2027, to thirteen dollars ($13) an hour beginning January 1, 2028, and to fifteen dollars ($15) an hour beginning January 1, 2029; and beginning January 1, 2030, and each January 1 thereafter, increases it by an annual cost-of-living adjustment. All of our neighboring states have already implemented similar increases: Delaware, to $15 per hour; New Jersey, to $15.92 per hour, adjusted annually; and New York, $17 per hour for New York City and surrounding counties, and $16 per hour for the remainder of the state. According to the MIT living wage calculator (https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/42), the livable wage for a single adult with no children in Pennsylvania is $23.32 per hour. The state’s Minimum Wage Advisory Board, in its annual report, states that in 2025, there were approximately 42,900 Pennsylvania workers earning minimum wage or less at their primary job. According to the statement from Governor Shapiro’s office announcing the state’s budget, the purchasing power of the Commonwealth’s current minimum wage – $7.25 per hour – has eroded by more than 30 percent since 2009. There is absolutely no way anyone can raise a family on one full-time job that pays only $7.25 per hour. As Governor Shapiro put it in his budget statement:
“For more than 15 years, Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour, falling further behind the cost of living and leaving hundreds of thousands of families struggling to make ends meet. You shouldn’t have to work two or three jobs just to put food on the table and a roof over your head. We need to raise the minimum wage so Pennsylvanians have a real shot at getting ahead. The House has answered the call and passed legislation to raise the minimum wage three separate times – now it’s time for the Senate to follow their lead and get this done.”
In June, according to a report in Spotlight PA, the Democrats in the Senate tried a procedural technique to force action on the House-passed bill, filing a discharge petition in an attempt to bring the bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote. Members can theoretically use discharge petitions to force popular bills out of a committee without the consent of the committee’s chair, by putting the petition to a majority floor vote. But without some bipartisan support, they’re easy to circumvent. When the Democrats called for the full chamber to consider the discharge petition, it failed in a party-line vote.
In short, the only way to get real action on the minimum wage in Pennsylvania is to elect enough Democrats in the State Senate to switch party control, so it will take action on the House bill to increase the minimum. Of course, that assumes that the House is still under Democratic leadership, so we must also strengthen the Democrats’ control of the House by electing more Democratic state legislators. If you care about working families, this is one issue you should consider when casting your ballot for your state legislator or state Senator this fall.
Dennis P. Walsh
Media, PA
The author is a retired labor lawyer and a former Member of the National Labor Relations Board.