Senate Democrats urge passage of minimum wage legislation leading into budget deadline

Emily Scolnick is a 2026 Dow Jones News Fund intern at the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

Senate Democrats emphasized dignity for workers in their push for an increase in Pennsylvania’s minimum wage Wednesday. 

The state House has passed legislation to raise the minimum wage three times in the last four years, most recently in March. This version of the bill would raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour — where it has sat since 2009 — gradually over the next three years until it reaches $15 an hour in 2029. 

Although this year’s bill has received bipartisan support, it currently sits in the Republican-controlled Senate’s Labor and Industry Committee. 

“If you are making under $15 [an hour], it’s the Senate Republicans that are keeping you under that number,” said Sen. Art Haywood (D-Montgomery). 

Raising the minimum wage has long been a priority for Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is running for reelection. In his budget address in February, he called on the General Assembly to raise the wage to $15 an hour to support spending, keep employees working, and increase stability for workers. A higher minimum wage would also increase Pennsylvania’s revenue through increased tax collections. 

In an effort to push the Senate to vote on the wage legislation, Minority Floor Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) has taken what Haywood called an “unusual step”: filing a discharge petition to force the bill out of committee to the floor for a vote. 

“It’s been very few times that this step has been taken to try to force the Senate Republicans to take action that is so long overdue,” Haywood said.

Costa filed two other discharge petitions earlier this year to spur action on legislation to provide justice for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Neither bill has successfully advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

At Wednesday’s press conference, Costa emphasized that raising the minimum wage is a “top priority” for Democrats, and that if legislation cannot be passed this budget season, it will remain a priority for the caucus through the fall session, the midterm elections, and into 2027. 

He added that Pennsylvania is “an island” compared to its neighboring states, whose minimum wages are anywhere from $1 to $9 higher. 

“Today marks 7,277 days since Pennsylvania last took action to raise the minimum wage,” said Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia). “The people earning minimum wage are not asking for luxury, they’re asking for dignity.” 

Rep. Matthew Bradford (D-Montgomery) further emphasized dignity for workers, calling it “immoral” and “unconscionable to try and defend” Pennsylvania’s low minimum wage. 

Organizations like the Philadelphia Unemployment Project work to support unemployed and low-income workers in Pennsylvania. Adam Goldman, the organization’s executive director, noted that a quarter of those out of work are considered “long-term unemployed” — unable to find work for at least six months, and when they do find work, the jobs “pay less and less.” 

Past minimum wage efforts

Tartaglione has served in the state Senate since 1994 and is the longest-serving female senator in the commonwealth’s history. She said the first bill she negotiated on behalf of Senate Democrats was the 2006 legislation that raised the wage to $7.15 an hour before it was raised another 10 cents three years later due to a federal mandate.

Multiple lawmakers noted that each day, she reminds the Senate how many days it has been since that legislation passed. 

“In that time, we have lived through a recession, a pandemic, historic inflation, and dramatic increases in the cost of housing, health care, groceries, transportation, and child care,” Tartaglione said. “Everything around us has changed except the minimum wage.” 

Tartaglione introduced legislation in 2014 to gradually raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The bill never advanced out of the Senate Labor & Industry Committee — where each of the two most recent attempts to raise the minimum wage has faltered.  

“That was a bare minimum at that time,” Goldman said. “Even then, Republican leadership refused to move the bill forward, and now we’re seeing the same thing in 2026.” 

Passing minimum wage legislation could increase pay for 6,000 constituents in each of Pennsylvania’s 50 state senate districts, according to Rep. Napoleon Nelson (D-Montgomery). He added that 190,000 workers across the state currently make under $12 an hour. 

“Where’s the dignity in that budget?” he asked. “If I could send home to over 6,000 of my constituents a little bit more dignity, it feels like the sort of thing that I would do, and do it immediately.”