Labor & Industry Urges Increase to Archaic Minimum Wage to $12 with a pathway to $15

Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier was joined by Rep. Patty Kim, Sen. Christine Tartaglione, and Elementary Coffee owner Andrea Grove to call for an increase to Pennsylvania’s outdated minimum wage to $12 an hour with a pathway to $15 by 2027. This increase – the first since 2009 – will benefit working families and local economies and boost the incomes of more than 1.1 million Pennsylvania workers.

“Over the past decade, prices for food, housing, education, childcare, and other critical needs have increased significantly while the minimum wage earned by Pennsylvanians has remained stagnant,” said Acting Secretary Berrier. “While every state surrounding us has recognized this loss of purchasing power and increased their minimum wage, we have continued to fall further behind. Now many Pennsylvanians are facing job loss and have no savings because they were working jobs that paid too little to allow them to set aside money for emergencies. We cannot let this crisis continue – we need to raise our minimum wage now and allow hardworking Pennsylvanians the dignity of
providing for themselves.”

Governor Tom Wolf is proposing to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2027, boosting incomes for nearly 1.1 million workers and put $4.4 billion into the pockets of Pennsylvania workers in the first year. Raising the wage to $12 an hour will inject an additional $116.4 million into Pennsylvania’s economy; an increase to $15 will bolster Pennsylvania’s economy by $320.6 million in 2027.