Pa.’s minimum wage battle is being led by Philly and its suburbs, with officials fighting for $15 per hour

With new leadership in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, there’s a new spirit of collaboration. And they’re using it to pressure the state to raise the minimum wage.

Twelve Democratic leaders and two Republicans from Southeastern Pennsylvania, home to almost half of the state’s population, are working together to lobby for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The move marks one of their first major collaborations since Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and others took office.

Pennsylvania has the lowest minimum wage of any of its surrounding states, with even the Republican strongholds of West Virginia and Ohio raising their minimum wage above the federal minimum to $8.75 and $10.45, respectively.

The top executives of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties sent a letter this month to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is also from Southeastern Pennsylvania, and legislative leaders in support of Shapiro’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. It “benefits us all,” they wrote.

“Despite the assumption that an increase only impacts teenagers or other younger workers, research has shown that those implicated by a minimum-wage increase represent a multiracial and multigenerational group,” the executives added in their March 22 letter.

Signees include Parker, all of the county commissioners from Bucks and Montgomery Counties, as well as the entire Delaware County Council and the two Democratic commissioners from Chester County.

While Democrats supporting a raise in the minimum wage isn’t new, the collaboration between counties is. Philadelphia has long been a Democratic stronghold, and the party has controlled Montgomery County for more than a decade. But Bucks, Chester, and Delaware Counties flipped to Democratic control in 2019 — making agreement among Southeastern Pennsylvania leaders more likely.

Plus, the support on the minimum wage from Republican county commissioners — Gene DiGirolamo from Bucks and Thomas DiBello from Montgomery — helps make the pitch to Republican leaders in Harrisburg, who control the state Senate.

Parker has called intergovernmental collaboration one of her top priorities, as well as raising the minimum wage.

The four collar counties and Philadelphia sometimes collaborate on transportation issues regarding SEPTA and became more collaborative during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat. The group of leaders are working on the issue of minimum wage now, because it’s a “really important issue to the growth and sustainability of this whole area,” she added.

“We are all struggling to find people to work” in county jobs, Ellis-Marseglia said.

Counties usually advocate at the state level through their involvement in the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, or they’ll lobby lawmakers on an individual level.

Philly and the surrounding counties are working together want to raise the minimum wage to to help their residents meet the ever-rising cost of living in the counties. For example, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the “living wage” to adequately afford housing and meet other basic needs in each of these counties is more than $22 per hour for a single person with no children.

One in three workers in Southeastern Pennsylvania over 40 years old would get a wage increase if the state were to raise the minimum wage. Black and Hispanic workers disproportionately get paid the state’s current $7.25 minimum wage.

“The local cost of living often make the [$7.25 minimum] wage ‘feel’ even lower in many of our jurisdictions — with fewer dollars needing to stretch further,” the leaders wrote. “This ultimately puts a strain on Pennsylvania’s families, leaving little left over to cover basic necessities, let alone saving or investing for their future. Raising the minimum wage is not only an investment in our residents, but also an investment in the state’s future.”