Supporters rallied at City Hall for Philadelphia to get its own minimum wage and ‘free’ it from Pa. rules

Public officials and union leaders rallied outside City Hall on Tuesday to advocate for a higher minimum wage for Pennsylvania and an end to the state rule that keeps Philadelphia from setting its own minimum.

“We are working to be poor and make too much to get help,” Stephanie Gibson, 42, a security officer who works in Center City and makes $16.25 an hour, said at the rally on Tuesday.

Gibson, who is a shop steward for her union, says she makes too much to qualify for programs like SNAP, and lives with her mother because she’s been evicted from her home. She’s worked three jobs to support raising her six children.

“I had to make ends meet, and quite frankly, I’m about sick of doing it now,” she said. “It‘s time for us to just have one job so I can have time for my kids.”

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, which stands at $7.25 an hour, is one of the lowest in the country, and the lowest among neighboring states.

The rate has not changed since the federal minimum wage was set in 2009.

The living wage in Pennsylvania for a single person without children is $22.91 as of February 2025, according to a living wage calculator developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Raising the wage floor would increase the income of roughly 399,000 people in Philadelphia and the four surrounding counties.

Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly back increasing the state’s wage floor, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll last year. Despite this, legislation has not advanced amid a divided Pennsylvania General Assembly. Democrats currently control the Pennsylvania House and Republicans control the Pennsylvania Senate.

Those gathered on Tuesday also argued that Philadelphia should be able to set its own minimum wage distinct from the state’s. Under Pennsylvania’s preemption law, Philadelphia and other municipalities are unable to do so.

Roughly 60 supporters gathered around 3 p.m. Some wore 32BJ SEIU purple shirts and held signs that read “Raise the wage,” and “Free the wage.”

The 32BJ SEIU union, whose members include janitors, security officers, and building engineers, has been working with public officials across party lines to support legislation for a $15 minimum wage.

The union would like the whole state to increase the wage floor to at least $15, said Daisy Cruz, a mid-Atlantic district leader for 32BJ, adding that “it costs more than that for people to be able to just survive.”

“This has to do with paying your bills every single day and being able to stay afloat,” Cruz said.

Rep. G. Roni Green (D., Philadelphia) and Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D., Philadelphia) introduced legislation to raise the minimum wage this month. Both bills include future increases to keep up with the cost of living and allow municipalities to set their own minimum wage above that of the state.

“It is impossible to raise a family on the wage of $7.25 per hour,” reads the memo attached to Green’s bill. “Even households of one cannot feed themselves, pay rent and utilities, and save for their future on a $7.25 per hour wage.”

Green, who was in attendance at the rally, believes recent efforts have the chance to succeed where others have failed, because of increased communication and strategizing among labor leaders.

Speakers at the Tuesday rally included Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, Council President Kenyatta Johnson, Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, and labor leaders including Danny Bauder, president of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, and Diana Robinson, co-director of Make the Road Pennsylvania.

“We cannot ignore the impact of rising prices, particularly in light of new federal tariffs that are expected to increase the cost of everyday goods like groceries, medicine, clothing, and household essentials,” said Tartaglione in a statement last week. “The burden of these increases will fall heaviest on the people earning the least, and we have a responsibility to act.”

Mayor Parker and Council President Johnson cosigned a letter addressed to Gov. Josh Shapiro earlier this month, urging him to allow Philadelphia to set its own minimum wage. Shapiro has supported increasing the minimum wage statewide.

Allowing the city to set its own standard, Parker and Johnson wrote, could alleviate high poverty levels and address the issue of rising housing costs, as well as help attract and retain people in Philadelphia.

“On an issue so vital to Philadelphians’ access to economic opportunity and their ability to self-sustain, Philadelphians deserve minimum wage-setting authority. It is a matter of democratic choice and access to economic opportunity,” the letter said.

“It’s that real life, lived experience, quite frankly, that has encouraged me, with every fiber of my being, to use our seat at the table to continue advocating for Pennsylvania to make right what it has gotten wrong for a very, very long time,” said Parker on Tuesday.

The Tuesday rally at City Hall kicked off a statewide campaign by 32BJ in an effort to “free the wage.”

“It’s almost embarrassing to even talk about the fact that the state of Pennsylvania still has a minimum wage of $7.25, since 2009,” said Cruz on Monday. “It’s about time that something starts happening.”