Gov. Tom Wolf Renews Calls For Minimum Wage Increase
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
LANCASTER, Pa. (KDKA) -- Gov. Tom Wolf is renewing his call to raise the minimum wage.
In Lancaster today, he urged lawmakers to raise the state's minimum wage to $12 an hour "immediately," and then to $15 an hour over the next several years.
He points out that all of Pennsylvania's neighboring states have raised their minimum wage above the federal level.
However, Pennsylvania's has stayed the same for 10 years.
He says it would benefit more than a million Pennsylvanians, especially essential workers.
"They keep food on our shelves, took care of our children, supported people with disabilities, and many of them many of them earned poverty wages while doing it," Gov. Wolf said.
Wolf cited a poll by Franklin & Marshall College that found two-thirds of registered voters in Pennsylvania support a higher minimum wage.
In March, two Republican lawmakers proposed a bill that would see Pennsylvania's minimum wage be bumped up from $7.25 an hour to $10 an hour.