Raise minimum wage for workers in Pa.

It’s been 11 years since the current $7.25 an hour rate was enacted, and many are living below the poverty line.

Friday marked an unfortunate benchmark anniversary in Pennsylvania, the 11th anniversary of the last minimum wage increase. The state’s wage floor has been stuck at $7.25 since July 24, 2009, when the federal government last raised the minimum wage.

Pennsylvania has not acted to get above that level despite repeated calls from the governor and workers. Twenty-nine states now have a higher minimum wage, and 21 states increased the wage floor this year.

With many workers struggling to get by, especially essential workers who are providing vital services during the pandemic, Gov. Tom Wolf again called on legislators to raise the wage, the seventh time he has done so.

In January, the governor proposed raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour on July 1 with annual 50 cent increases until reaching $15 an hour in 2026.

Of course state lawmakers soon had more pressing things on their minds as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all non-essential businesses and schools in March.

But as the state reopens including state government, Wolf makes the point – and we agree – that now is an even more important time to raise the minimum wage.

“Today is a sad reminder that across the state many workers are on the job and earning poverty wages because Pennsylvania hasn’t raised the minimum wage in over a decade.

Many of them are essential workers, who throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have gone to work and put themselves at risk to provide the services all of us rely on,” Wolf said in a press release on Friday.

The continuing push to raise the minimum wage on both the national and state levels got some traction in 2019 with legislative proposals that did not go as far as Wolf’s call for an eventual $15 an hour but did get above the abyssmal $7.25. Those proposals failed to get past the argument that raising the minimum wage would hurt small business owners.

In the current economic environment in which those same small business owners are struggling to stay afloat, that argument will be even louder. However, giving the essential workers who are still on the job in Pennsylvania an increase generates income to spend locally in those same small businesses.

Workers earning the current minimum wage — many of whom are minorities — are living below federal poverty guidelines.

Even the proposals to get to $10 an hour don’t bring families out of poverty.

A $10 an hour job nets $20,800 a year before taxes, below the federal poverty guideline of $21,330 for a family of three. At $12 an hour, the $24,960 in earnings is below poverty level for a family of four.

Some employers, such as Target and Walmart, have recognized the importance of getting to a living wage, and we commend them. But without the guide of a higher earnings floor, too many workers in Pennsylvania remain in poverty.

Many of these are essential workers on the front lines in health care institutions and nursing homes as aides, maintenance workers, and food service providers.

Others are home health care aides and hourly cleaners, whose services have been both critical and risky during this pandemic.

Eleven years is far too long for Pennsylvania workers to endure the lowest earnings floor among neighboring states.

We urge lawmakers to demonstrate to workers, especially those on the front lines, that their efforts are worth something more than the lowest tier. Action to raise this wage floor is necessary — now more than ever.

Workers earning the current minimum wage — many of whom are minorities — are living below federal poverty guidelines. Even the proposals to get to $10 an hour don’t bring families out of poverty.