For Pennsylvanians struggling to keep up with the cost of groceries, housing, utilities, and other necessities, financial security is about more than making ends meet today. It also means being able to save for a future when working is no longer an option.
Those challenges are among the many reasons wages and retirement security are important issues to residents of the commonwealth during election season. The state’s minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour since 2009.
Raising the minimum wage and state-facilitated retirement security are pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the state Legislature, but have failed to pass over the years. Thousands of voters throughout the commonwealth are directly affected by the decisions lawmakers make when it comes to wages and retirement, including in the 143rd district, which includes parts of Bucks County.
Here’s where the candidates for that district, Democratic challenger Tim Hayes and Republican incumbent Rep. Shelby Labs, stand on the issue.
Minimum wage
Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour for more than 17 years, when it rose alongside the federal minimum wage. At that rate, a worker putting in 40 hours a week for 52 weeks would earn $15,080 per year before taxes. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage would need to be about $11.40 today to match the same purchasing power in 2009, based on federal inflation data. It’s also below the 2026 federal poverty guideline of $15,960 for a single person.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, a single adult with no children in Pennsylvania needs to earn $23.32 an hour to meet basic living costs while working full time.
According to the state Department of Labor, in 2025 about 42,900 Pennsylvania workers earned the minimum wage or less. An estimated 189,900 workers in the state earned near minimum wage ($7.25 to $12).
Experts say raising the minimum wage reduces poverty and stimulates consumer spending.
Tim Hayes said he supports raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, though he acknowledged that lawmakers need to discuss how to implement an increase.
His position on the issue is personal. Hayes said his father worked as a sheet metal worker before retiring on disability. His mother had to take multiple minimum wage jobs.
“I saw what it was like and how much of a struggle it was just to live,” Hayes said.
State lawmakers have repeatedly debated increases, but no proposal has made it to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. There’s currently a Republican majority in the state Senate, where many of Democrats’ bills that pass the House get blocked.
Hayes’ opponent, Republican Rep. Shelby Labs, has voted against each attempt to raise the minimum wage.
Most recently, in March 2026, Labs voted against House Bill 2189, which proposed raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2029.
Labs also voted against minimum wage legislation in 2023 and 2025.
Retirement security
Paying the bills today is only part of the challenge. Workers also need ways to prepare for retirement.
To assist workers whose employers might not offer a retirement plan, lawmakers introduced legislation last year, HB 1263, that would establish a state-facilitated retirement savings program that would give workers a way to contribute to a retirement account through payroll deductions.
More than 2 million Pennsylvania workers do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. In a survey from AARP in Pennsylvania, 88% of registered voters said state lawmakers should support legislation making it easier for workers to save for retirement.
Labs voted against HB 1263. While it still passed the House, it has been stalled in the Senate.
Democrat Hayes said he supports establishing a program to help workers save for retirement. He pointed to service workers who may continue to work into their 70s or 80s because they don’t have enough savings to retire.
“The state needs to step up and help out,” Hayes said.
