Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Kinkead, Green unveil bill tying legislator COLA to minimum wage increases

Kinkead, Green unveil bill tying legislator COLA to minimum wage increases

Automatic, annual minimum wage bump at same rate of lawmaker pay raises

Rep. Emily Kinkead, Rep. Roni Green    March 24, 2026 | 10:05 AM

HARRISBURG, March 24 – Annual cost-of-living increases calculated for lawmakers’ salaries would be applied to Pennsylvania’s minimum wage through a bill introduced today by state Reps. Emily Kinkead and Roni Green.

“It is shameful that state lawmakers have seen a more than 45% salary increase over the last 17 years while the minimum wage has remained unchanged,” said Kinkead, D-Allegheny. “Taxpayers are funding annual raises for elected officials. Those same taxpayers deserve to see their wages grow as well.”

Kinkead said that in 2009, when Pennsylvania’s current minimum wage was set at $7.25 through the new federal rate, the salary for members of the General Assembly was $78,314.66. Since then, that salary has increased to $113,591.40; inflation has risen by more than 50%, and the minimum wage has not increased.

“We’ve witnessed for nearly two decades the difficulty of increasing the minimum wage for hardworking Pennsylvanians,” said Green, D-Phila. “Connecting a regular, recurring raise in the wage to our own COLA in the legislature is a meaningful gesture that shows we respect the work of all Pennsylvanians and that all work has value.”

House Bill 2312 has been introduced and will soon be referred to a House Committee.