State Minimum Wage Bills Passes House Vote
ALEX LLOYD GROSS/FILE PHOTO IN a February 2019 rally State Senator Vince Hughes speaks in favor of raising the minimum wage.
by Alex Lloyd Gross
June 23, 2023
The state minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum wage.$7.25/hr . It has not gone up in almost 15 years. In the meantime, the pay for Pennsylvania lawmakers has shot up like a rocket, with cost of living increases. It has not been for lack of trying. Every year a bill would get put in the Labor and Industry Committee and every year Representative Jim Cox would do nothing with it.
Cox is no longer an elected official and the Labor and Industry Committee is now chaired by Representative Jason Dawkins, who is representing working class people of the Frankford area. This bill now has to go to the senate where it will be voted on. The Dawkins Bill mirrors a bill written by Senator Dan Laughlin who is a republican.
The push to raise the state minimum wage has some bipartisan support. Locally State Rep KC Tomlinson voted against party lines for an increase. It helped pass 103-100. “The Senate should do something with this, they would be foolish not to”, Dawkins said.
With the New Jersey Minimum Wage set to hit $15/hr next year, all of the fear tactics put forth against raising it have been proven to be full of hot air.
It will cost jobs- In New Jersey, employers are begging people to take jobs. They hold job fairs and resort to huge advertising campaigns to hire workers, and are still having problems, even at $16-17 dollars an hour.
It will cause prices to rise- Prices have risen in PA and New Jersey. A recent comparison in prices saw the price of things even LOWER in New Jersey where the minimum wage is at least $14.00/hr. Prices of food/gas/services has risen and the minimum wage has nothing to do with it.
By raising the minimum wage, businesses will close. Businesses have thrived in New Jersey. A poorly run business or a business that is not relevant is going to close. Should they close, those jobs will be absorbed by larger employers. This results in people getting paid more.
The minimum wage should be set by an individual business. That means the business owner in New Jersey is mandated to pay their worker $15/hr to ring a register. That same business can get away with whatever they want in PA. Some workers cannot travel to work and employers take advantage of this and pay $8.50/hr to ring the register. That means a huge conglomerate like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Wendy’s for example can pay employees less in PA. They do this because they can . Many franchisees have businesses in both PA and NJ. They are against this bill because their profits will fall.
Paying more money actually hurts workers. Senator Art Haywood(d-PA) laughed at this and asked how he would be injured if someone put $5.00 more in his pocket. With all of the talk about raising the wage, some people may think the wage is already at $15,00/hr. It is not. This bill will raise the wage in short spurts, from $7.25 to $11.00. In a year it goes to $13.00then in 2026 $15.00. With a cost of living adjustment attached.
Should the state senate pass this, Governor Josh Shapiro has said he will sign it.