OP-ED: Minimum wage hike overdue

OP-ED: Minimum wage hike overdue York Dispatch editorial board With the federal $2 trillion coronavirus relief package a done deal, a bit of unfinished business needs tending to in Pennsylvania: the state’s paltry minimum wage. When U.S. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that a federal minimum wage increase did not comply with the rules governing passage of the relief bill, Pennsylvania’s working poor saw their best chance in years of a wage increase vanish. That’s because state lawmakers haven’t increased the minimum wage since George W. Bush was in office. The last hike, in 2009, came about only because the federal floor was raised. To paraphrase an old Chris Rock joke, state lawmakers would let employers pay their workers less, but it would be illegal.