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HARRISBURG — After years of arguments and a near-deal in 2019, Democrats in the Pennsylvania legislature say it’s now just a matter of time before Republicans agree to vote in favor of raising the state’s minimum wage.

At the moment, Pennsylvania’s wage floor is $7.25 an hour — the same as the federal minimum. The legislature last increased the state’s minimum wage in 2006, and every neighboring state currently has a higher wage floor.

“I think we’re all tired of fighting on this,” said state Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin, who for years has introduced legislation to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage.

Democrats’ newfound optimism is based on the fact that a Republican who is a member of the state Senate’s leadership team is the lead sponsor of a bill to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Yearly increases tied to the rate of inflation would follow under the legislation.

“Due to the rising costs, workers are unable to pay for basic necessities and forced to rely on public assistance,” the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, said in a statement in late May. “It is time we address the issue and I believe this bill is the most responsible way to approach it.”

The state House is under Democratic control, and there are likely enough votes in the chamber to approve a minimum-wage increase. The state Senate, meanwhile, is strongly under GOP control.

Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-47th, said Laughlin’s bill has some merit, but raising the minimum could negatively impact nonprofit organizations.

“It’s something we need to look at and consider very carefully,” Vogel said.

He said many businesses already offer pay of $15 an hour or more to attract employees, and they can recover those costs by raising consumer prices.

“What impact will it have on nonprofits? They don’t have the ability to pass on increases to customers,” Vogel said.

Vogel said Laughlin’s proposal to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $15 and then tie future raises to increases in the consumer price index has some merit, but he doesn’t know how much support the bill will receive in the Senate.

“I understand where they’re coming from. People need a living wage,” Vogel said.

Raising the wage to $15 at once “won’t fly in the Senate,” he said.

“We want to implement a policy for businesses to create a maximum wage, not something that artificially raises wages,” Vogel said.

Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, R-12th, does not support raising the minimum wage.

“Wages ought to be determined by market forces. Big government and big box stores are hiring for nearly $20 (per hour). They will absorb the cost temporarily, then replace manual labor with automation,” Scialabba said. “A legislature-induced raise will do little to fix the workforce shortage and will obliterate our small businesses.”

Still, state Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, is hopeful something will be done by the end of the year.

“... It’s just a function of figuring out the dynamics of what it’s going to look like,” he said.

Republican leadership in both chambers has been wary of raising the minimum wage.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, and Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, voted against raising the wage floor to $9.50 an hour in 2019. That year, the state Senate passed a compromise bill negotiated between Republicans and former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf; it died in the state House.

In an email earlier this spring, Kate Flessner, a state Senate GOP spokesperson, said the caucus is “focused on implementing policies that will create maximum wage jobs” rather than through “artificial minimum wage increases.”

Even if the chambers reach a deal, it’s unlikely the bill will include language allowing Pennsylvania’s cities, such as Philadelphia, to set a higher, local minimum wage. The 2006 bill that last increased the minimum wage included a ban on local action.

Getting rid of that ban is a high priority for dozens of progressive community and advocacy groups.

Preemption “is often used as a tool for state governments to prevent big cities with majority Black and brown residents from governing as they see fit,” the coalition said in an open letter in May. “This model should be rejected by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.”

State House Democrats have expressed support for local control, but they doubt it’s actually in the cards.

“I don’t believe that will happen,” said state Rep. Jason Dawkins, D-Philadelphia, who chairs his chamber’s Labor and Industry Committee.

Eagle staff writer Steve Ferris contributed to this report.

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