The Keystone State's minimum wage remains tied to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Meanwhile, all of Pennsylvania's neighboring states now have a higher minimum wage, thanks to increases that went into effect for 2019.
Gov. Tom Wolf could not push through an increase for Pennsylvania workers in his first term.
Wolf's proposal for a $12/hour minimum met unshakable Republican resistance in the General Assembly. And prospects for a raise for Pa. workers might not get any better in Wolf's about-to-begin second term.
As PennLive opinion editor John Micek writes, wage relief for Pennsylvania workers appears to be little more than a second-term mirage for Wolf.
This, as Republicans in the state House and Senate have lost seats in the November election, yet still enjoy a smaller but more deeply conservative majorities in each chamber.
Thus, the odds for Wolf winning a minimum wage increase actually look even longer in term two, despite Wolf's own convincing election triumph.
Bottom line: There likely will be no poverty-raising pennies from heaven for the state's minimum-wage workers any time soon.
But the real fallout s being felt in the 67 counties across Pennsylvania, where the cost of living varies widely. A Living Wage Calculator hosted by MIT shows how much it takes for families to eke out a living at a basic, no-frills subsistence level, county by county.
The living wage varies by county, yet all of Pa.'s counties have one thing in common: At $7.25 an hour, an adult working full-time and supporting one child is not making anything near a "living wage." In fact, this minimum-wage single parent is below Pennsylvania's poverty level of $7.81 an hour in all 67 counties.
With more children to care for, this same earner is hopelessly plunged deep into abject poverty.
Click here to scroll through the slideshow below to check the living wages and poverty levels for various family sizes in each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.
