Markets Raise Wages Better Than Politicians

Originally published by the Reading Eagle.

Whenever debate about the minimum wage arises, it’s hard not to think back to the summer jobs we had as kids. But today’s job market is drastically different.

My daughter landed her first job at a beauty salon, starting at $10 an hour. Meanwhile, my son started working at a grocery chain at $15 an hour. That’s two kids, two first jobs, and two very different businesses with very different capacities to compensate their workers—yet both paid well above the minimum wage.

But here we are again, enduring the political theater of lawmakers grandstanding on the issue. Gov. Josh Shapiro has been especially vocal, promoting a $15-per-hour minimum wage in his 2026–27 budget proposal.

Thankfully, markets have already resolved the minimum-wage debate by lifting wages without a government mandate. Fewer than 1 percent of Pennsylvania workers—just 42,900 people—earn the minimum wage, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. That’s an all-time low, down by about 42 percent in just five years.

Read more at the Reading Eagle.