HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s minimum wage could increase to $15 an hour by 2026 under a bill passed by the state House on Tuesday, a top priority for Democrats for more than a decade.
The state House, with its one-seat Democratic majority, voted to increase the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $11 at the start of 2024 and increase it by $2 until it reaches $15 per hour in 2026 with one Republican lawmaker joining the Democrats
Democrats in the state Capitol have tried for more than a decade to raise the state’s minimum wage. The Pennsylvania General Assembly hasn’t raised the minimum wage since 2006, and Pennsylvania’s wage is the lowest of any state in the region.
House Republicans, however, opposed increasing the state’s minimum wage and pointed to Pennsylvania’s 6.1 million workers, a fraction of whom are actually paid minimum wage.
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About 2% of Pennsylvania’s workers earned the minimum wage last year, or 63,000 workers, according to a March Department of Labor and Industry report. Approximately 13% of Pennsylvania workers, or 819,000 workers, earn just above minimum wage between $7.26 and $12 per hour.
Rep. Jason Dawkins (D., Philadelphia), who chairs the House Labor and Industry committee, said the bill is a compromise for House Democrats, who want the wage to be immediately raised to $15 an hour.
“You know you have good legislation when no one is happy,” Dawkins said during the House floor debate ahead of the vote Tuesday evening.
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