Despite GOP’s attempts to compromise, Wolf says he’s not abandoning overtime plan

The governor wants to require that time-and-a-half be paid to anyone who makes $45,000 or less and works more than 40 hours in a week.

• Katie Meyer
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  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf delivers his budget address for the 2019-20 fiscal year to a joint session of the Pennsylvania House and Senate in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

(Harrisburg) — Governor Tom Wolf says he’s not backing off his plan to qualify more Pennsylvanians for overtime pay.

He wants to raise the salary cap on automatic overtime, so workers who make more can get time-and-a-half. A new federal rule that took effect this week is already increasing the salary cap on mandatory time-and-a-half pay from $23,600 a year, to $35,500.

Wolf has proposed increasing it even more, to $45,000.

Some Republicans had hoped to convince Wolf to stop the planned change by making a deal on one of his longtime priorities, a minimum wage increase. The commonwealth’s minimum is $7.25 an hour, the lowest wage allowed under federal law.

All the states that surround Pennsylvania have raised their wages.

Toward the end of last year, the GOP-controlled Senate passed a modest wage increase from $7.25 to $9.50 an hour. Wolf, in return, halted the approval process for his overtime plan and appeared willing to abandon it.

But now, he said, he’s not confident the House will follow suit.

“I had some conversations but there’s no commitments,” he said. “I think there’s a recognition that we’ve got to do something. $7.25 is inadequate. But it’s a matter of whether there’s a will to move forward.”

So, Wolf said he’s going forward with his overtime plan.

The Independent Regulatory Review Commission, which is controlled by Democrats, is slated to vote on the rule January 31^st.

Lawmakers will be back in session next week. House Republicans haven’t said what they plan to do with the Senate’s minimum wage bill.

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