HARRISBURG, Pa. — Governor Tom Wolf has joined legislators and workers to renew his call to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $12.00 an hour with a pathway to $15.00.
Later this week, the governor’s plan to extend overtime pay eligibility to 82,000 more workers will be considered by the state’s rule-making board. The General Assembly has not passed a minimum wage increase in more than a decade. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has been at $7.25 an hour since 2009, the minimum wage allowed by federal law.
A full-time, year-round minimum wage worker earns only $15,080 annually, less than the federal poverty threshold for a family of two. Twenty-nine states have a higher minimum wage and 21 states are increasing the wage floor this year.
The governor’s proposal raises the minimum wage to $12.00 an hour on July 1, 2020, with annual 50 cent increases until reaching $15.00 an hour in 2026.
The governor was joined at a Capitol press conference by Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione, minority chairwoman of the Senate Labor & Industry Committee, and Rep. Patty Kim, both champions of raising the minimum wage.
In 2018, the governor signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for Commonwealth employees under the governor’s jurisdiction to $12.00 an hour with a pathway to $15.00 by 2024. Today, the minimum wage for state workers is $12.50.
New Overtime Rules
In addition to fighting for a minimum wage increase, more than 82,000 workers will get pay increases if new overtime rules submitted by the Wolf Administration are approved by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) on January 31. That is in addition to the 61,000 Pennsylvania workers who became eligible for time-and-a-half pay when new federal rules took effect January 1 for workers earning less than $35,568.
The governor’s proposal would require overtime pay to most full-time salaried workers in executive, administrative, and professional jobs if they make less than $45,500 by 2022. With the combined rule changes, an estimated 142,000 more workers will be eligible for time-and-half pay compared to last year.
