Reader Poll: Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised?

moneyThe federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 per hour.

Pennsylvania is one of only fourteen states that have the same minimum wage as the national rate.

If Governor Wolf has his way, however, the floor will be set at $10.15 per hour. That’s the minimum wage he set for federal employees under his latest executive order.

According to the Wolf Administration’s estimates, if the state legislature raised the rate to that level it would bring $60 billion more in annual revenues and benefit 1.2 million Pennsylvanians.

We want to find out what you think.

Should PA’s Minimum Wage Be Raised From $7.25/Hr to $10.15/Hr?


  • No (65%)
  • Yes (35%)

Total Voters: 2,248

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26 Responses

  1. Phil, I call you BS. I voted once. Didn’t know the poll worked that way and I still don’t. I’ll take your word for it, assuming you’ve tried. I don’t give a damn about these polls. Maybe you stacked it early on?

    Fitting that you think this is about a poll. If a poll said the 1% should pay 50 cents on the dollar in taxes doesn’t mean it’s good for the economy or the poor. A 40% increase in the minimum wage will destroy some lives. You’re OK with that! Stop making this about polls, it’s about families and REAL lost jobs.

  2. Quite a turn around in the poll, ever since unsactioned R started posting. Hm. It almost looks like someone figured out that if you block cookies you can load as many votes as you want. I declare this poll BS.

  3. Not every job has to pay a living wage. Some can supplement household income. Maybe a retiree can fill a role that the employer and employee find mutually beneficial and also helps consumers by keeping prices down. Maybe a teen who has no experience can gain some by working part-time building a resume. Et cetera.

    These building blocks of the economy, which keep jobs local, prices low, and small towns vibrant should not be outlawed by limousine liberals.

  4. Anyone who works should earn a living wage. It is the right thing to do. Anything less is a form of slavery. Furthermore, workers with a living wage can receive health care from the MarketPlace and which receives a larger contribution from the Feds, thus saving the state the money it now pays those minimum wage workers in Medicaid funds. With more access to money, families spend more and add to the local economy.

  5. Increase to $10.15 is roughly 4x inflation. That may be the Governor’s bargaining point, but it’s disingenuous of Democrats to say the increase to $10.15 is due to inflation.

  6. I voted ‘NO’ in the poll, but raising the minimum wage to $10.15/hour isn’t in and of itself the issue. The D’s are correct–that’s shy of where it would be if $7.25 were adjusted for inflation. The real reason for my ‘NO’ vote is my core belief that the competitive market should set wages, not government–the Governor’s efforts here are really about the labor agenda to index the wage to inflation, taking it above the levels that the market can support at some future date.

  7. “one twink to the law on the cost of drugs and deductibles would fix it.”

    Democrats so dumb. Only Democrats voted for Obamacare. Republicans knew they were lying to the American people.

    This reminds me of the “stimulus” which cost taxpayers $300,000 for each new shi-tiy job created. How much again did it cost to drop the uninsured population from 11% to 8%?

  8. it is time, it would help all employees to push the ceiling up. bid jobs on the lower scale would rise proportionally and as for health care, blame the do nothing congress and the greedy insurance exut. one twink to the law on the cost of drugs and deductibles would fix it. Obama did his job now let congress do theirs.

  9. Math is like Kryptonite to Democrats. BTW, CPI 2009-2016 is in the 10% range.

    I’ll take tea party trolls over sanders socialists. I had to listen to nurses lobby for the same wages as doctors yesterday. I kid you not. No wonder patients give nurses no respect. And they want to prescribe controlled substances without supervisory physician care. That’s their bill in PA too. But do they want to carry liability insurance like the docs, he’ll no. Democrats so dumb.

  10. The minimum wage was last raised in 2009 and it should definitely be raised again, but not by 40%. How about by 20% or the same % that the CPI has gone up since 2009?

  11. You’re describing exactly what happened in Seattle Fred. The Democrats closed small businesses, laid off all their employees, owners and their families were then on public assistance too.

    I suppose some businesses raised their prices and sold less and reduced the purchasing power of the locals, making their dollar go less far.

    Some businesses, probably larger, were able to move or hire workers overseas in order to keep their prices affordable for consumers. But, these are all consequences that Democrats will tell you never happened because they’re afraid to look people in the eye and tell them that their lives are not as important as Democrat political goals.

  12. If a small business cannot afford to pay their Employees $10.15, they shouldn’t be in business in the first place.

  13. When the “Affordable” Care Act, AKA Obamacare, came around I was told by the President that I could keep my plan, that I could keep my doctor, and that it would save us about $2,500 a year. Well, we lost our plan, and some doctors, and the plans were not only unaffordable, the DEDUCTIBLES were not insurance for our budget at all. Not even close. Why would I trust Democrats with economics changes in PA when the data from Washington look so bad for average people like us?

    God is good though. Although we no longer have traditional insurance, we joined a health sharing ministry which saved us almost 70% off the cheapest Obamacare option available in our market and exempts us from the mandate tax (the first tax everyone in the US has to pay for merely existing). Being insurance-less so far has been awesome for our family, but I do feel bad that having become uninsured because of Obamacare, we have accelerated the death spiral for everyone else.

  14. Income inequality has done awesome under Democrat control of congress and the presidency. If I wanted the poor to vote against their interests, I’d just get out of the way. Fact is, if you don’t trust AEI, please don’t continue to ignore and turn your back on the many many reported unemployed in news reports. You may hate the Democrat party, but I’m just pointing out their hypocrisy–advocating policies that destroy poor families and then saying they don’t exist.
    Many of these families lost their income the day the mandatory minimum took effect. Why not just make a $50 minimum wage? How about $100, even better!

  15. Unsanctioned R, both parties don’t care about the poor. The GOP doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them. Around the country in GOP controlled states, your party has cut food stamps for the working poor, welfare and doing whatever they can to make income inequality even worse to make their buddies in big business happy. Your tax cuts doesn’t help either by giving all the wealth to the rich elite where it doesn’t belong while the rest of the American people continue to struggle to live. And when these policies hurt them, you blame it on the Democrats and get voters to vote against their own interests through lies and false promises. Politics as usual by both parties to divide and control. Your party and the Democratic Party are no different. Both want to continue endless wars, spy on Americans,serve the big banks and Wall Street. Just in case you wish to call me a political epithet like “liberal” or “libtard”, try again because I am not. It’s none of your business where my politics align. I despise conservatism and liberalism. Both parties are the problem. AEI is a special interest group that Republicans really serve. You know who serves on the board of directors? Let me help. They are all CEOs from ExxonMobil, Motorola, American Express, State Farm Insurance, and Dow Chemicals. Big corporations that have a higher chance of getting laws passed that they want than the American people. Big business only cares about big profits and greed off the backs of their employees at the expense of the environment. AEI’s donors all come from big corporations too. So yeah, I don’t trust a damn word from these fools. It’s politicians and policies from the two parties like yours is why I am fed up, sick and tired and mad as hell. Now you retort any way you wish and I’ll respond when I give a damn.

  16. Liberals don’t care about the poor. They choose to ignore all the jobless families that their policies create. Just look, they say AEI is lying, they’d rather tell the children who’s parents have lost their jobs that they don’t exist than to try and count them.

  17. Right Bill Peschel, like I’ll believe a bunch of propaganda from a conservative special interest group that supports big business.Nice try.

  18. We need a living wage. The time is now to do what is right by the people in PA.

  19. we are not settle we are one of the biggest state and we should move that rate up its been that way since the 90’s

  20. Its a shame that Pennsylvania is still at $7.25 when everyone around us is moving the rate up .. Pennsylvania always last

  21. Great. Can’t wait for jobs to be lost and prices to increase! I’m just happy it’s only for state workers. Does Wolf think at all before he takes these sorts of actions?

  22. Until I google AEI you really had me going Bill! Ha ha! You might as well take info from the Commonwealth Foundation or WWE. It was a joke, right?

  23. I like that you only provided the supposed benefits and not the opposing views logic. And, maybe you could have pointed out that economic impact projections are rarely accurate- nearly impossible to measure.

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  • Will tonight's U.S. Senate debate affect your decision?


    • No. I've already decided on how to cast my vote. (81%)
    • Yes. Anxious to hear from both candidates (19%)

    Total Voters: 27

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