Discussions toward raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage for the first time since 2009 are heating up, in part to get Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to abandon an effort to extend overtime pay eligibility to thousands of workers.
Leaders of the Senate’s Republican majority said Friday that negotiators must compromise for a bill to pass the chamber.
Any bill would still have to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Being discussed is an increase from the $7.25 federal minimum to around $9.50 an hour in steps over 18 months or so, more modest than what Wolf proposed in January.
Negotiators are up against a Thursday deadline, when a state rule-making board is voting on Wolf’s overtime regulation. The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is pushing a minimum wage increase in exchange for Wolf dropping the overtime regulation.
