Not everyone is on board with Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to raise the minimum wage in Pennsylvania.

The current wage, $7.25 has been in effect since 2009.

Jack Kulp, executive director at Tamaqua Area Chamber of Commerce, called the prospect of raising the minimum wage to $12 “terrible,” adding that if implemented, introducing a wage hike that is practically double the current rate would inevitably increase in the cost of living.

“It’s going to put people out of work,” Kulp said.

While some like Kulp deny the prospect of raising minimum, others paint a picture of prosperity if the wage were raised. Two reports that came out last year seem to confirm the latter.

In late 2018, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at University of California Berkeley released a report on the impact of higher minimum wage on job availability in the food services industry. Their analysis included six major cities that were on the forefront of minimum wage increases taking place since 2012, encompassing the cities of Chicago, Seattle and others.

Researchers found that minimum wages between $10 and $13 not only had a positive effect on earnings, they had no negative repercussions on hiring within the food service services industry.

Wolf’s most recent proposal is also his most ambitious, aiming to not only increase the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour as of July 1, 2019, but to raise the wage incrementally to $15 by 2025.

“Today too many people are working harder and harder and they still can’t afford basics like food and transportation and shelter,” Wolf said in January while presenting his second-term budget proposal. “Despite working full time, too many people still need help from public benefits programs to get by.”

Pa. one of 16

According to the United States Department of Labor, Pennsylvania is one of 16 states whose minimum wage matches the federally set amount of $7.25. Twenty-nine other states, including those that surround the commonwealth, have minimum wages that exceed the federal rate.

To put this in perspective, in Maryland, the minimum wage is $10.10 per hour. In New Jersey, it’s $8.85, and in New York it’s $11.10.

Still, there’s the concern that a drastic minimum wage boost, like the one the Wolf is pushing, isn’t something businesses, and particularly local ones in Carbon and surrounding counties, would be able to afford.

Tough choice

“In our eyes, we’re very pro-business, and I definitely get that minimum wage is really important to folks in our society,” Marlyn Kissner, executive director at Carbon County Chamber and Economic Development, said. “But we’re the ones that are dealing with the businesses every day, and to have a mandate and not have the business make that choice and have that ability is tough, because we don’t want to see businesses go out of business.”

Rather than increasing the wage to $12 — and eventually $15, in 2016, the chamber’s Minimum Wage Subcommittee suggested bringing it up to $9.25. The subcommittee, which consists of local business members and works under the Public Policy Committee, plans to reassess the current figure and update it based on economic trends over the last three years.

But if the rest of its proposal remains the same, the chamber would also suggest increasing the minimum wage if there was also an increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, which measures consumer prices some workers encounter.

Meaning that if the CPI-W were negative one year and prices fell, then there would be no effect on the wage the next. But if inflation were to occur, and the CPI-W were to increase, minimum wage would also increase up to 3 percent the following year.

“We are not against that (raising the minimum wage) at all,” Kissner said. “We understand the need to raise minimum wage, but let’s do it in a sense where the businesses have an opportunity to prepare.”

After its current policy proposal is updated, Kissner said, the chamber will submit the proposal to legislators.

“It’s important that we feel as a chamber our voice is heard, because we’re made up of the business community,” Kissner said. “That’s our job.”

More worker training

Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-Schuylkill, thinks the state should shift its focus off minimum wage, and onto preparing Pennsylvanians to enter the workforce and obtain higher paying positions.

“We need to be more concerned about getting people trained,” Knowles said. “It benefits both groups. It benefits the employee, because they can then make a decent wage, and it benefits the employer, who then gets a good worker that they’re glad to pay good money because they’re helping them produce and be a successful business.”