Mar 19, 2021 2 min read

The minimum wage in Pennsylvania is $7.25 per hour, the lowest allowed by federal law. And that figure has not changed since 2009.

Jennifer Berrier wants to change that. Berrier, acting secretary of the state Department of Labor & Industry, is advocating an increase to $12 an hour, with a path to $15 by 2027.

“Over the past decade, prices for food, housing, education, child care, and other critical needs have increased significantly while the minimum wage earned by Pennsylvanians has remained stagnant,” she said during a virtual news briefing Thursday morning.

“While every state surrounding us has recognized this loss of purchasing power and increased their minimum wage, we have continued to fall further behind.”

Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2027.

Berrier was joined by two state legislators – Rep. Patty Kim, from the Harrisburg area, and Sen. Christine Tartaglione, from outside Philadelphia – and Andrea Grove, owner of a Harrisburg coffee company.

Grove said: “As the government continues to fail its working class by not raising the minimum wage, perhaps as a community, we can prove to them that raising the wage is as simple as placing value on human lives over products, politics, and class differences.”