Bye. The House passed a bill raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2029

For the third time in four years, the state House has passed legislation to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage.

The latest measurewhich was approved by a vote of 104 to 95, provides for a gradual escalate in the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to $15 in 2029.

The price would escalate to $11 per hour in 2027, another $2 an hour in 2028, and $15 in 2029.

From 2030 onwards, this would include annual cost of living adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jason Dawkins (R-Philadelphia), said on the floor: “It’s long past time for us to take seriously the affordability crisis we’re experiencing in this country – rising gas prices, rising housing costs, rising food costs, rising day care costs, and everything in between.”

He added: “Pennsylvania should lead the way to ensure that everyone has the decency and dignity to go home with a non-embarrassing paycheck.”

But this solution had only four Republican supporters.

Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R-Bedford) warned that entry-level jobs, often filled by adolescent people and students entering the workforce, could be eliminated if employers are forced to pay them $15 an hour. He also cited concerns that companies may escalate product prices as compensation.

“If I really believed that a government-mandated wage would be the utopia we hear about and that it would solve all the problems we hear about, I would support it,” he said. The problem is that I fundamentally don’t believe he will be able to achieve these goals.”

Another critic, Rep. Robert Leadbeter (Colombia), warned that raising the minimum wage could have a particularly negative impact on tipped workers, who are not exempt from the bill.

“Do not harm tipped workers by ignoring their protections in your efforts to raise the minimum wage,” he said.

Four Republicans voted in favor of the bill: Reps. Joe Emrick (R-Northampton), Natalie Mihalek (R-Allegheny), Joe Hogan (R-Bucks) and Kathleen Tomlinson (R-Bucks).

Two Democrats, Reps. Frank Burns (D-Cambria) and Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia), voted against it.

The two previous committee votes on this measure, in the Appropriations Committee and in the Labor and Industry Committee, were entirely along party lines.

Although House Democrats have long wanted to escalate the minimum wage, the fate of the measure will be decided by Senate Republicans.

Bills that would have raised this have left the House in 2023 and 2025. But those efforts failed in the Senate, where the GOP majority largely opposed similar measures.

In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman said he would like to focus on “policies that will help create more maximum-wage jobs.”

“There is potential for a middle ground on a minimum wage increase, but any possible action would need to be based on common sense adjustments and take into account the impact of the changes on small businesses and nonprofits,” he added.

Last year, the Senate rejected what Democrats viewed as a compromise solution. This proposal would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in most of the state, but to just $12 an hour in smaller, rural counties where opponents have raised concerns about the impact on tiny businesses.

While these efforts appeared to be in vain, Sen. Dan Laughlin (R-Erie), who has sometimes sided with Democrats on divisive issues such as cannabis legalization, proposed a measure to raise the minimum wage to $11 an hourbut that didn’t gain any momentum either.

Gov. Josh Shapiro also expressed support for a minimum wage escalate. Since being elected to office in 2022, he has included in each of his budget addresses a proposal to raise that amount to $15 an hour.

Another bill introduced in The House bill, introduced by Reps. Emily Kinkead (R-Allegheny) and Roni Green (R-Philadelphia), would tie the minimum wage to cost-of-living increases received by lawmakers in Harrisburg.

Pennsylvania lawmakers already receive an automatic annual cost of living escalate. Rank-and-file lawmakers currently earn $113,000 a year. This makes the Pennsylvania Legislature among the highest paid in the nation.

Kinkead and Green’s bill would raise the minimum wage annually by the same relative amount as lawmakers’ salaries.

“It is shameful that state lawmakers have seen wages increase by more than 45% over the last 17 years while the minimum wage has remained unchanged,” Kinkead said in a statement. “Taxpayers fund annual raises for elected officials. Those same taxpayers also deserve to see their salaries increase.”

Each of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states has a minimum wage above $7.25. In New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland it’s already $15 an hour. Among them, West Virginia is the lowest at $8.25.

The Commonwealth last voted to raise the amount in 2006, when Gov. Ed Rendell signed an executive order increasing it to $7.15. It was raised to $7.25 in 2009 when the federal government raised the rate nationwide.