Talks on raising the minimum wage in Pennsylvania have heated up for the first time in a decade as Republicans attempt to get Gov. Tom Wolf to drop his efforts to extend overtime pay eligibility to tens of thousands of additional workers, writes Marc Levy for the NBC 10.

Negotiators are faced with a November 21 deadline, when a state rule-making board will vote on Wolf’s proposal.

However, the new proposal of raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour in stages over 18 months is significantly lower than Wolf’s January proposal of a multi-year increase to $15 an hour by 2025. As a result, many Democratic lawmakers and labor unions are not amendable to agreeing to significant concessions for such a low gain.

“I think workers deserve more, I think that people that work for a living deserve better from our government,” said Wendell Young IV, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 in Plymouth Meeting.

Still, he added that when faced with “an unmovable conservative bloc that won’t do much or anything, it’s important to get what we can for those workers.“

Read more about the issue at the NBC 10 by clicking here.

Share your perspective by voting in today’s VISTA Voice survey asking whether Pennsylvania’s minimum wage should be raised!

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