Lancaster, PA – Governor Tom Wolf was joined by legislators, business owners and advocates today to call on the General Assembly to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $12 an hour with a path to $15. More than 1 million workers would get a boost in their paychecks, which creates new customers for businesses and strengthens the economy for everyone.

“This isn’t about pitting workers against business owners, because businesses also stand to benefit from a higher minimum wage,” said Gov. Wolf. “Increasing the minimum wage puts more money into the pockets of workers, which gives local businesses more customers. Boosting wages also increases productivity and decreases turnover.”

The governor’s plan increases the state’s embarrassingly low minimum wage to $12 per hour on July 1, with annual increases of $0.50 until reaching $15 per hour on July 1, 2027. Nearly 1.1 million workers would get a raise, which would add $4.4 billion to the state’s economy.

The governor was joined for a press conference in Lancaster by Rep. Patty Kim, prime sponsor of HB 345 to raise the minimum wage, and local business owners Peter Barber, President, CEO and Co-owner of Two Dudes Painting Company and Jennie Groff, CEO and Co-owner of Stroopies, Inc.

Strong Public Support
Raising the wage has strong public support. A Franklin & Marshall College poll released in March found 67 percent of registered Pennsylvania voters support raising the minimum wage to $12 as the governor is proposing.

Eight other states are on path to $15, including red states. In the November 2020 election, voters in Florida – which has a Republican governor and legislature and voted for President Trump – passed a constitutional amendment to raise its minimum wage to $15 by 2026. President Biden also recently took executive action to increase the minimum wage for federal contractors and tipped employees to $15. Overall, 29 other states, including every state that borders Pennsylvania, have raised the minimum wage above $7.25 an hour.

“We’ve been in business for almost 35 years, and fair pay has been central to our success,” said Peter Barber, CEO of Two Dudes Painting Company in Lancaster, a full service painting company with more than 65 employees. “Our turnover is low, which saves us money and time. More experienced employees do better quality work, are more reliable, and provide better customer service. Raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $15 by 2027 will strengthen businesses and our economy.”

“Our experience as a small company demonstrates that paying livable wages is not only doable, it is good for business,” said Jennie Groff, CEO of Stroopies, Inc. a Lancaster food manufacturer in retail, wholesale and online distribution with 18 employees. “When your workers are cared for, they’ll be your biggest assets. $7.25 an hour is too low to live on. By raising the minimum wage, we will invest in our workers, support the growth of our businesses, and build a stronger Pennsylvania.”

Barber and Groff are members of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a network of business owners and executives and business organizations that believe a fair minimum wage makes good business sense.

Closing the pay gap
Raising the minimum wage to $15 will create stronger financial stability for women and persons of color across the commonwealth. Six in ten workers getting a pay boost are women, which represents nearly 24 percent of all women in the state. Additionally, a $15 wage floor would directly benefit 35 percent of Hispanic workers, 29 percent of Black workers and 18 percent of Asian workers. Seventy-five percent of the workers are age 20 or older and nearly 40 percent work full-time, which refutes harmful stereotypes by making clear that hundreds of thousands of adults are stuck making poverty wages

Rural workers gain the most from raising the minimum wage. The highest percentage of workers getting a raise with a $15 minimum wage are in 29 rural counties, according to findings from the Keystone Research Center. We must not allow any Pennsylvania worker to be left behind as other states raise wages for their working families.

Workers keep their jobs as states raise the minimum wage
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that as New York state gradually raising its minimum wage to $15, wages are increasing without jobs losses. Low-wage workers living in New York along the Pennsylvania border saw their pay increase by more than 25 percent, while the wages of Pennsylvania workers in the northern tier rose only 15 percent.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York prosecutors have convened a special grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business dealings. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was moving toward seeking charges as a result of its two-year investigation, which included a lengthy legal battle to obtain Trump’s tax records. In a statement, Trump called the investigation a “witch hunt,” saying it’s “purely political” and “driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors.” The district attorney’s office declined to comment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Heading into the Memorial Day travel weekend, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of his party are falsely blaming President Joe Biden for higher gasoline and lumber costs.

Gas prices have risen in recent weeks because a key pipeline was forced to close after a cyberattack. And lumber shortages — which existed during former President Donald Trump’s administration — were worsened by an unexpected housing boom.

Shortages have bedeviled the economy this spring, but most economists attribute the bulk of them to the difficulties of restarting the U.S. and global economies.

A look at the claims and reality:

MCCARTHY: “Despite gas prices being at historic lows this time last year, the average price for a gallon of gas is currently an astounding $3.10. That’s the highest it’s been since 2014, the last time Joe Biden was in the White House.” — blog post on Monday.

REPUBLICANS on the HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE: “Biden’s policies have led to the highest gas prices in six years.” — tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Biden’s policies aren’t behind the price increases. Gas prices are up because of a rapid and unexpected bounce-back in demand, and because of lingering problems from the forced shutdown early this month of the Colonial Pipeline, which provides 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast.

McCarthy’s comparison to a year ago is also misleading. Gasoline prices didn’t fall at the time because of the Trump administration, as Trump often claims; they plunged because of the coronavirus forcing people to abandon their offices, schools, business trips and vacations. Underscoring the connection to the pandemic shutdown, U.S. gas prices were at their lowest in April 2020 when people were staying home most but have mostly risen since then, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration, even when Trump was still in office.

In recent weeks, the biggest factor has been the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline. Even though it has been back in operation for nearly two weeks, many states, mostly in the South, still haven’t fully recovered.

Roughly one-quarter of gas stations in North and South Carolina and Georgia are without gas, according to GasBuddy.com, which tracks gas prices nationwide. In Florida, 9% of stations have run out and in Tennessee, it’s 14%. Overall, more than 6,000 stations have run out, Gas Buddy’s Patrick DeHaan says.

Prices have also increased because the economy has reopened much more quickly than most analysts expected. Stimulus payments to American households, including $1,400 checks that were distributed in March, have helped Americans ramp up spending.

Also noteworthy is while gas prices are at their highest level in six years, oil prices are still slightly below where they were in 2018. That suggests oil supplies are adequate and the refining and distribution of gasoline — through such networks as the Colonial Pipeline — are the problem.

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RONNA MCDANIEL, head of the Republican National Committee: “… Lumber prices have increased 400%. We have real problems … (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi will do anything not to talk about the Biden failures.” — tweet May 20.

THE FACTS: She’s also wrong to link rising lumber prices to Biden “failures.” This spike as well is related to rising demand and a sharp economic rebound.

At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, sawmills actually cut their output of lumber, anticipating that sales of new homes would slow, according to economists at TD Bank. Instead, Americans — and families in other countries — sought more room during the quarantine and bought new homes or sought to renovate. That pushed up demand for lumber, even as supply was reduced, sending lumber prices higher.

The National Association of Homebuilders has pointed to insufficient domestic production dating back to Trump for the increases.

“When prices began their historic rise in August 2020, NAHB reached out extensively to the Trump administration, members of Congress and to lumber mills calling for prompt action to address supply shortages that were harming small businesses, home builders and ultimately, the overall economy” and is continuing to do so under the Biden administration, according to the group’s website.

Some of the price gains in lumber and other commodities reflect strong consumer demand for goods like housing and cars, which is actually a good sign for the economy. Most officials at the Federal Reserve, the agency charged with keeping inflation in check, have repeatedly said that inflation will tick up as the country reopens, but the increases will likely be temporary, as supply bottlenecks are worked out.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators are laboring to find a path forward for legislation creating a commission on the Jan. 6 insurrection. Talks were underway Tuesday on potential changes to the commission in a long-shot attempt to overcome growing Republican opposition. Absent an agreement on changes, Republicans are expected to block the bill whenever Democrats bring it up for a vote, potentially as soon as this week. The proposed commission would have 10 members, equally split between Democrats and Republicans. But many Republicans have still said they don’t trust it will be a bipartisan effort. They also want assurances the investigation won’t stretch into next year.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — As President Joe Biden undoes his predecessor’s immigration policies that he considers inhumane, he faces a major question: How far should he go to right perceived wrongs? Biden halted a key policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration courts and said an estimated 26,000 asylum-seekers with active cases could wait in the United States, a process that could take several years in backlogged courts. But that leaves out tens of thousands whose claims were denied or dismissed under the policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols.” Advocates are pressing for them to get another chance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are reviving negotiations over President Joe Biden’s sweeping investment plan. On Tuesday, they prepared a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal that would be funded with COVID-19 relief money as a counteroffer to the White House ahead of a Memorial Day deadline toward a bipartisan deal. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said a week of progress was expected. Talks over the infrastructure investment are at a crossroads as Biden reaches for a top legislative priority. The White House is assessing whether Biden can strike a deal with Republicans or whether he will go it alone with Democrats.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Former Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia has died. He was a former Navy secretary who was married to movie star Elizabeth Taylor when he first ran for the senate in 1978, and held onto the seat for 30 years. His longtime chief of staff said he died Tuesday of heart failure at home in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife and daughter at his side. Warner was a centrist Republican and powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who supported the war in Iraq. He also had an independent streak and drew support from moderates on both sides of America’s political divide. He was 94.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Penn State president who was forced out as the school’s top administrator after Jerry Sandusky was arrested nearly a decade ago is  expected in court for a hearing about his own pending criminal sentence. A Pennsylvania judge will preside over the Wednesday hearing in Harrisburg. He’ll determine if and when Graham Spanier must report to jail to begin serving time for endangering the welfare of children. Appeals have allowed him to avoid serving the jail time of at least two months in jail, followed by three months of house arrest. A Penn State spokesperson says Spanier remains a tenured faculty member on administrative leave who is not teaching classes.

(Story by Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Curtis Walsh)

(Cranberry Township, Pa) The body found inside a car that exploded in Cranberry on Friday, has been identified as 53-year-old Mark Jenks from Cranberry. The cause of death has been determined as smoke inhalation and burns. Police reportedly responded to the explosion at a Route 228 restaurant parking lot around 5pm on Friday.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state House committee is advancing legislation to keep portions of the governor’s coronavirus disaster emergency in place until October but end fast-track contracting rules and other provisions. The resolution passed by Republicans on the State Government Committee on party lines Tuesday requires approval from both legislative chambers but not from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. It’s designed to stop the use of no-bid contracts, require people on unemployment aid to look for work and end social distancing rules. Wolf’s mitigation orders are currently being phased out, and on Monday the governor’s acting labor secretary outlined a schedule for resumption of job search requirements. Wolf says lawmakers are acting before the election results have been certified.