Increasing the Minimum Wage to $15/hour by 2025 Would Raise Wages for Over 2 Million Workers in Pennsylvania. Who Are They?

HARRISBURG – The Keystone Research Center released a new study today outlining the demographics of the over two million workers across the state who would see their wages raised if Pennsylvania would raise its minimum wage to $15/hour by the year 2025, which would be the first increase by the state legislature in Pennsylvania in 13 years.

The report finds that workers across demographic boundaries would benefit. With this policy change, the state would see: more than 2 million workers across the state with higher wages; a reduction in poverty across the state; the elimination of disparities between tipped and untipped workers; a decrease in existing gender and race disparities; and more money being injected into our state/local economies. And with annual wage adjustments linked to inflation, Pennsylvania’s workers of the future won’t have to worry about their wages lagging.

Some key points:

• Nearly 90% of workers who would be affected by a 2025 increase to $15/hour are workers aged 20 and older.
• Nearly a quarter of workers who would benefit by a minimum wage increase to $15/hour by 2025 are parents.
• Research has found that for every 10% increase in the minimum wage, the poverty rate should decrease by about 5.3% in the long run; a full 38% of those workers who would benefit in the state have a family income below 200% of the federal poverty level.
• The majority (55%) of workers who would benefit from a 2025 minimum wage increase to $15/hour are full-time workers (defined as working 35 or more hours a week).
• 41% of workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase have at least some college experience.
• White, non-Hispanic workers in Pennsylvania make up the vast majority (72.8%) of people who would benefit from a 2025 minimum wage increase to $15. Nearly 13% of workers benefiting are African American, 10% Hispanic, and 5% Asian/other race/ethnicity.

Because women are disproportionately working in low-wage jobs, the benefits would disproportionately raise pay for women; of those workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase to $15/hour by 2025, 61% are women. By 2025, 41.1% of all women in the Pennsylvania workforce will benefit from a minimum wage increase.

CLICK THE GRAPHIC TO READ THE FULL REPORT: