A living wage is higher
The city of Philadelphia has used its power as an employer to start workers at $16.35 an hour and requires city contractors to do the same. At the city-owned airport, there’s a required prevailing wage of at least $17.20 an hour.
But Philadelphia can’t usurp state law for private sector employers that don’t do business with the city. 
32BJ SEIU workers joined the mayor, city council members and other union representatives to call for a raise to the minimum wage in Pa., at city hall in Philadelphia on April 29, 2025. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
That means local unions are negotiating against $7.25 as opposed to $15 an hour as the bare minimum, and it makes a difference, said Daisy Cruz, Mid-Atlantic District leader for the Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ in Philadelphia.
“It’s a lot of ground to make up at the bargaining table,” Cruz said, estimating that a living wage in Philadelphia is now closer to $24 an hour.
For Philadelphia security guards like Stephanie Gibson, she started making $15.15 an hour about a year ago and now earns $16.25 an hour. That’s about $34,000 a year before taxes. 
Stephanie Gibson, a 32BJ SEIU security guard, talked about working two jobs to pay bills, at a protest calling on legislators in Harrisburg to allow Philadelphia to raise their own minimum wage on April 29, 2025. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
That’s still not enough to afford a $1,200 two-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia, even when she really needs three bedrooms as the mother of six children, three of whom are still young.
She would need to earn at least three times the rent, $3,600 a month, to afford that apartment. That works out to $43,200 a year.
The 42-year-old has already been evicted from her old apartment and now lives with her mother to save money.
“I go shopping every two weeks and spend over $450 on groceries alone, which is not including the bare essentials,” she said.
To make her money stretch, she puts household needs on credit cards and is in debt.
She dreams of going to college in the fall to become an Xray technician but instead plans to get a second job working the night shift to earn more money.
“I do not qualify for programs like [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] because I make too much. I shouldn’t have to rely on programs if I work a full-time job,” she said.
She’s seen restaurant job advertisements that pay minimum wage in the city, which she says is not nearly enough.
“Absolutely not,” she said.
Pennsylvania is an outlier
Advocates also support a statewide minimum wage increase citing how the state is behind West Virginia, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
There’s broad support from businesses in the city for a $15 an hour minimum wage including the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, the African American Chamber of Commerce, the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Independence Business Alliance, the LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has advocated to raise the state minimum wage in his budget addresses as well.
There were an estimated 47,200 Pennsylvania workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2024 — less than 1% of workers statewide, according to the Minimum Wage Advisory Board. That includes tipped workers who often earn the subminimum of $2.83 an hour — but are required to be paid by their employer up to $7.25 an hour if tips don’t cover the difference. Another 255,000 workers statewide earned just above minimum wage, between $7.26 to $12 an hour in 2024.
While few job postings advertise minimum wage, the most common industries are food services and beverage establishments, construction and other services. The most common demographic for a minimum wage worker in Pennsylvania is an unmarried white woman between the ages of 16 to 24 years old with a high school diploma or less.
