Gov. Tom Wolf aims to pay for state budget savings through a significant minimum wage hike that he hopes will create new efficiencies and cut the state’s income support program costs.
Wolf signed an executive order Monday to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.15 per hour, which will affect Chester County’s state workers and employees of organizations with state contracts or leases starting July 1.
Wolf’s order asserted that the existing wage, adjusted for inflation, is lower today than in 1979 and possesses 18 percent less purchasing power. And once increased, it will put more full-time workers over the federal poverty level, thus taking them off of income support programs paid by the state, and will increase productivity and decrease turnover without reducing employment levels.
Wolf also called on lawmakers to raise the minimum wage for all statewide workers.
Read the full text of the executive order here.
