(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Twenty dollar bills are counted on June 15, 2018, in North Andover, Mass. The number of Americans who do not have a bank account fell to a record low last year, as the proliferation of online-only banks and an improving economy is bringing more Americans into the traditional financial system, according to a report Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)

(Harrisburg, PA) A new report finds raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to 15-dollars an hour would benefit more than 865-thousand workers from diverse demographic backgrounds. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has remained stagnant at seven-dollars-25-cents per hour for 16 years. Supporters of raising it point out that state lawmakers get automatic annual raises. Claire Kovach with the Keystone Research Center says the report highlights the types of workers who would gain from a higher minimum wage. She emphasizes the majority would be experienced workers – many of whom are raising families and employed in essential, in-demand roles. She adds a minimum wage hike would also benefit people of color, who make up 34-percent of workers who’d see a raise, despite representing just 27-percent of the state’s population. The report says single parents and home health care workers would benefit, too.