HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's minimum wage would rise by $2 an hour by July 1, 2007 — an increase that is one of Gov. Ed Rendell's biggest election-year priorities — under a bill passed Wednesday by the state House of Representatives.

The House approved the bill 146-50, and then sent it to the Senate, where the Republican majority favors a smaller wage increase.

The measure calls for increasing the current $5.15-an-hour rate to $6.25 an hour on July 1, and then to $7.15 a year after that.

However, the increase would not apply to workers under 20 years old during their first 60 days of employment.

"This represents a step in the right direction," said Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia, the bill's primary sponsor. "We're raising the minimum wage to a level that keeps people out of poverty."

Labor unions and advocates for the poor say families are struggling to support themselves at the current rate, and that an increase will also boost wages for workers at many other pay scales. But business lobbyists say small businesses would be unable to afford any wage hike.

"It further damages the state's ability to attract and retain job creators, because it is essentially a tax on small businesses," said Brian Kelly, a lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

During his 2002 campaign, Rendell said Congress should take the lead on raising the minimum wage. But last year, he began supporting Democratic lawmakers' proposals to raise it in Pennsylvania, citing inaction by the GOP-controlled Congress.

Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have raised their minimum wages in the nine years since Congress has left the federal minimum wage at $5.15.

"Since the minimum wage was last increased, the cost of food, clothing, shelter and gas has gone up," Rendell said in a statement Monday. "With Senate concurrence, we can finally put Pennsylvanians in a position to better afford life's basic necessities."

The Senate is unlikely to accept the House bill in its current form, however. Republicans in that chamber support raising the minimum wage to about $6.25 or $6.30, which is the equivalent of $5.15 adjusted for inflation since 1997, said Stephen MacNett, the chamber's top GOP lawyer.

"The steepness of the increase between 2006 and 2007 is probably not realistic," MacNett said.

An estimated 423,000 people in Pennsylvania currently earn between $5.15 and $7.14 per hour, although that number includes the newspaper carriers, farm laborers, seasonal park and camp workers, gardeners, maids, golf caddies and others who are already exempt.