(The Center Square) – The Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House on Tuesday voted to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 over a period of years, advancing one of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s priority issues and setting up yet another face-off with the Republican-controlled Senate.
The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jason Dawkins of Philadelphia, passed on a 104-95 vote and now will be considered by the Senate.
A similar bill passed the House last session but stalled in the Senate Labor & Industry Committee, led by Allegheny County Republican Sen. Devlin Robinson. Asked for comment Wednesday, Robinson did not endorse or reject the House action. But, he said he supported “finding a reasonable, middle ground increase to the minimum wage.”
At the same time, Robinson said he also supported advancing policies that give people the “ability to earn a maximum wage” and not have families be limited by the pre-set minimum wage.
The Senate finished up a pair of daily voting sessions on Tuesday and will not be back in Harrisburg for another one until April 20.
When Shapiro pitched his proposed 2026-27 state budget in early February, he exhorted lawmakers to pass the minimum wage increase. He pointed out that “four of our six neighbors are at $15 or more,” while Ohio is “on their way to $15” and “even West Virginia is ahead of us.”
The governor also views the potential increase as a financial help to the state. If enacted, he said, the increase would boost the incomes of 61,000 people who are currently on state-supported Medicaid to the extent that those people would no longer need to rely on the program.
The savings, he said, would be about $300 million. Shapiro also predicted a ripple-effect increase in personal income taxes and sales and use taxes.
Other proposed revenue-enhancers in Shapiro’s proposal were legalization of recreational marijuana, and regulation and taxing of the tens of thousands of so-called “skill games” that have proliferated in convenience stores, bars, and clubs across the state.
If Senate Republicans don’t want to enact these revenue boosters, House Democratic Appropriations Committee Chairman Jordan Harris said on Tuesday, they should make public a list of cuts. “We need to know what nursing homes they want to cut. We need to now what home care agencies are no longer going to get funding,” said Harris, of Philadelphia. “We need to know what schools are going to get cut and what teachers and nurses we are going to send home.”
Senate Republican Majority Leader Joe Pittman of Indiana County focused on the minimum wage bill and the need to create “good, family sustaining jobs.” He said it might be possible to find “middle ground” on increasing the minimum wage.
“Any possible action would need to be a common sense adjustment, and sensitive to the impact changes would have on small businesses and non-profit organizations,” Pittman said.
Dawkins’ bill was amended earlier in the week to include language that would allow individual counties to boost the minimum wage on their own, providing the amount does not go above $15 an hour. On Tuesday, Dawkins described this move as an attempt to give Senate Republicans “options.”
Dawkins said it was time to do the “right thing” and allow minimum wage workers to take home “a paycheck that is not embarrassing.” Democratic Majority Leader Matt Bradford of Montgomery County equated the current situation to keeping “the boot on the neck of our workers.” He said, “We have an obligation to do what is right and moral.”
Republican Rep. Robert Leadbeter of Columbia County condemned what he said was the failure of the bill to protect the sages of tipped workers. Republican Minority Leader Jesse Topper of Bedford County said the bill could make products more expensive, and lead to the loss of jobs by “our young high school students who are learning how to work.”
All Democrats voted in favor of the bill except for Reps. Frank Burns of Cambria County and Chris Rabb of Philadelphia. Four Republicans joined with most Democrats in voting “yes”: Reps. Joe Emrick of Northampton County, Joe Hogan and Kathleen Tomlinson of Bucks County, and Natalie Mihalek of Allegheny County.
Separately, Republican Rep. Stephanie Scialabba of Butler County announced Tuesday that she will resign from the chamber, effective next week.
