Erie County Times

Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA) met with Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) at Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church in Harrisburg to call on the General Assembly to pass legislation that would provide $2,000 direct payments to Pennsylvania residents to help with COVID-19 pandemic recovery and rising costs across the board. They also renewed their request for an increase in the minimum wage.

Wolf’s proposal is for $500 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to provide direct payments to households making $80,000 or less, according to a release on May 13. The PA Opportunity Program was created to help people recover financially from the pandemic.

“I first introduced this plan four months ago,” said Wolf. “A lot has changed since then, from inflation to price increases to a war in Ukraine. Pennsylvanians need our support even more today than they did in February. Under my plan, Pennsylvania households earning $80,000 or less will get up to $2,000, and they can use the money for whatever they need. This plan will help Pennsylvanians get back on their feet right now – but I also want to look ahead, to the long-term solutions that will help keep Pennsylvanians on the path to prosperity. That’s why I support raising the minimum wage for all Pennsylvanians.”

In February, Wolf proposed a $1.7 billion proposal for unspent ARPA federal dollars to be used in a variety of ways to help people out of a hole they could have been in from the pandemic. Democrats have introduced legislation with Senate Bill 1619 and House Bill 2531 that supports Wolf’s PA Opportunity Program, but no progress has been made in what is a Republican-led General Assembly. If funds aren’t used by Dec. 31, 2024, they will go back to the federal government.

Wolf and Kim once again called for the increase in minimum wage to $12 by July 1, and for the amount to increase annually until it reaches $15 per hour in 2028.

Pennsylvania currently has a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and 30 states have one that is higher. The increase would directly help 21% of the state’s women, amounting to 614,400 people. It would also directly assist 31.9% of Hispanic workers; 26.3% of Black workers; 15.7% of Asian workers and 25.8% of workers of other races and ethnicities.

“During recent months, the cost of housing, utilities, energy, transportation and even groceries have all increased,” said Kim. “Almost all essential costs have risen across the board in Pennsylvania, except for the cost of labor. In Pennsylvania, unlike all our neighboring states, the minimum wage has not budged since 2009. This scenario all but guarantees severe and crippling economic hardships in Pennsylvania for people earning the lowest income. We are looking at a scenario where Pennsylvania’s working poor – those people working 40 or more hours a week – will still be struggling just to survive. 

The MIT Living Wage calculator shows that a single adult needs $16.93 per hour to support themselves and $32.83 per hour if they have a child.

The Keystone Research Center released a report that said if the minimum wage kept up with productivity growth since the late 1960s it would now be $24 per hour.

“The price increases we’re seeing right now are especially painful because wages haven’t kept up with the rising cost of living for many years,” said Wolf. “This reality of unchanging wages and rising living costs has stretched the resources of working Pennsylvanians and their families to the limit, and with the recent dramatic price increases, beyond it. By sending ARPA dollars to Pennsylvanians and raising wages, we can help Pennsylvanians recovering from the pandemic get back on their feet and take the pressure of higher prices off of our commonwealth’s families.”