Gov. Wolf Accelerates Executive Order On Minimum Wage

PENNSYLVANIA — Gov. Tom Wolf accelerated the timeline for an executive order that will raise the minimum wage for state employees to $15 an hour, his administration announced Tuesday. This moves up the original timeline from 2024 to Jan. 31, 2022.

The move follows the governor's initial March 2016 order to raise minimum wage to $10.15 hour, and another order to increase it to $12 an hour in July 2018.

“Pennsylvanians deserve to be paid fairly for their work, but for too many Pennsylvanians, fair pay is just a dream because of Pennsylvania’s embarrassingly low minimum wage,” said Gov. Wolf. “The fact that Pennsylvania’s minimum wage hasn’t increased in 13 years is an embarrassment. It’s an insult to hardworking Pennsylvanians who are doing the same amount of work but finding that their paychecks cover less and less every single year."

The Wolf administration has consistently called for minimum wage to be increased for all workers to $15 an hour. The Republican-led legislature does not support that steep of an increase, and the governor expressed hopes that private employers will do it on their own.

Wolf said that the move is aimed at establishing the state as a "model public sector employer for the 21st century" that will attract and retain skilled employees.

Additionally, supporters say it raises morale and work quality, while helping workers with the rising cost of living. “Over the past decade, the cost of food, gas and just about everything else has gone up, but the purchasing power of our minimum wage has dropped by nearly 17 percent," he said. His office says that employees today have to work 31 percent more hours in 2022 to earn the same standard of living that was considered "bare minimum" in 1972.

Republican opponents argue that raising the minimum wage too high would scare away business and damage the state's economy.

Pennsylvania currently has a lower minimum wage than its eight closest neighboring states.