The state House voted Tuesday afternoon to boost Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2029.
Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.
“If you work hard, you shouldn’t have to worry about your next meal or having a roof over your head. Pennsylvania needs a minimum wage suitable for everyone, not just to survive, but to thrive in our state,” state Rep. Jason Dawkins, D-Philadelphia, the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement.
The bill, cosponsored by 10 other Democrats, passed largely along party lines in a 104-95 vote. Four Republicans, including state Rep. Natalie Mihalek of Peters, voted in favor of the bill, while two Democrats opposed it. Democrats hold a slim majority in the House.
The bill calls for raising the minimum wage to $11 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2027; to $13 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2028; and then to $15 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2029.
Starting on Jan. 1, 2030, and each Jan. 1 after that, the minimum wage would go up annually by applying the percentage change in the consumer price index in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland area.
The bill also would give counties the option of more quickly boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour and set the minimum wage for tipped employees at 60% of the statewide minimum wage.
Senate would need to approve
The legislation now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate for consideration.
“We call on our Senate Republican colleagues to bring up this bill for a vote in the Senate as soon as possible,” Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, said in a news release.
“This is the THIRD year in a row that the House has stepped up to do their part,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat from Montgomery County, added in a post on X. “The ball is now in the Senate Republicans’ court. It’s time for them to bring this to a vote and send it to my desk.”
In an email to TribLive, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, said, “Making sure working families have access to good, family-sustaining jobs is key to helping our commonwealth thrive. Implementing policies which help to create more maximum wage jobs will help to grow our economy.”
Pittman added that there is “potential to finding a middle ground for an increase to the minimum wage, but any possible action would need to be a common-sense adjustment, and sensitive to the impact changes would have on small businesses and nonprofit organizations.”