Tag: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Republican State Senator Proposes $15 Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Bill

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s state Senate Republican Policy chair on Friday said he’s sponsoring legislation gradually raising the commonwealth’s minimum hourly wage to $15 and thence indexing it to inflation.

Senator Dan Laughlin (R-Erie), one of his chamber’s most moderate Republicans representing one of its most electorally competitive districts, said in a statement that he carefully mulled the issue before announcing his measure. The Keystone State’s pay floor rose to $7.25 per hour in 2008, matching the federal minimum wage, and the senator insisted now is the time for an increase, observing that 30 states now set their floors higher. 

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‘Great Resignation’ Contributed to Inflation in 2021: Report

The Center Square

People switching jobs during the Great Resignation contributed to rising inflation in 2021, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

“The idea is as follows: By applying for jobs in a different firm, employed workers can elicit wage competition between the current employer and the new candidate employer. The firm that intends to poach the worker from their current employer has to offer a sufficiently large wage to make the offer attractive. And if a worker is particularly valued by their own employer, they may be offered a pay raise that is necessary to retain them in their current job,” authors Renato Faccini, Leonardo Melosi and Russell Miles wrote in Chicago Fed Letter No. 465. “In this context, if employed workers search more, wage competition among employers increases, leading to an increase in inflationary pressures; if they search less, wage competition falls and inflationary pressures decrease.”

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