Pennsylvania employers are some among the growing list of employers across the country in nearly 20 states where they have had to update their minimum wage labor law posters. In the case of Pennsylvania, the increase came about as a result of a law passed by the PA legislature and signed by Governor Ed Rendell this past summer.
The new minimum wage labor law in the state elevated the Pennsylvania minimum wage to $6.25 as of January 1, 2007. But wait—the minimum wage in the Keystone state does not stop there. On July 1, 2007, the Pennsylvania minimum wage will increase again, this time to $7.15 per hour. This time period does not hold for all employers or employees in the state by the way, an important point to stress.
Employers with 10 or less full time employees will not have to follow that schedule to implement the increases to the Pennsylvania minimum wage. Instead, their pay raises will come over the course of the next two years. There is also another exception made to the so called trainees in PA who earn the trainee wage. This wage is for employees under the age of 20 for the first 60 days of their employment.
This training wage is based on the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. But the state law also makes it clear that employers cannot use the trainee wage as an excuse to fire employees making more money. So you cannot hire people and pay them the new trainee wage to displace workers who otherwise would be making the new PA minimum wage.
Experts who I’ve heard from say that the Pennsylvania minimum wage has benefited more than 420,000 workers in the Keystone State. Again, I am still waiting for the stat service that can provide the numbers for the number of employers who are affected by these new minimum wage laws.
