Skip to content
Apply
Stories

Pennsylvania marks minimum wage anniversary: Workers have been earning $7.25 for 13 years

People in this story

Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that hasn’t raised the 13-year-old federal minimum wage of $7.25. But Pennsylvania is the only such state in the Mid-Atlantic, according to the United States Department of Labor.

A 2021 PA Department of Labor report showed that minimum wage earners only represent 2.6% of all hourly workers in the commonwealth, but 70% of them are 25 years old or younger.

Richard Paulsen is an assistant professor of economics at Bloomsburg University. He is seeing a large portion of the youth population either earning a base wage, or even deciding to not join the workforce at all. One reason young people might not take a minimum wage job? The wage can’t buy as much as it used to.

Continue reading at WESA/NPR.

More Stories

Coming soon: A co-op experience living under the ocean in the world’s largest undersea science station

05.19.2023

How Northeastern is helping Caribbean communities combat climate change and extreme weather

05.15.2023

UNEP at Fifty Goes Global

05.21.23
All Stories