How much do you need to earn to live in Pennsylvania? Here’s the living wage in 2025
Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is less than a third of what a Centre County resident needs to afford basic necessities, according to the latest data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator.
The commonwealth’s minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum, at $7.25, and has been for 16 years. A single adult without children needs to make more than three times this amount to afford basic necessities in Centre County. The tipped minimum cash wage in the commonwealth is $2.83 an hour.
The Keystone State’s minimum wage has not increased since 2009, when the federal minimum wage increased.
Pennsylvania’s statewide minimum livable wage is $21.95 for a single adult without children, according to MIT’s calculator. The living wage is calculated to be the hourly figure an individual needs to make to afford the basic necessities.
The national cost for all items is up 2.9% over the past 12 months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Food costs are up 2.5% over the same period, while energy services are up 3.3%.
Housing costs are up 4.6% across the nation, the federal agency reports, and the median rent price in Pennsylvania is $1,540, popular housing site Zillow reports. The rent calculation includes all property types and sizes for rental properties listed on the site.
“There has been higher than normal inflation since 2020,” Zack Klingensmith, assistant professor of economics at Washington & Jefferson College, wrote in a Jan. 28 email to the Centre Daily Times. “This has hit most people in Pennsylvania but seems to have affected urban areas like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia more than rural areas - largely because of rapid increase in housing costs.”
In December 2024, the median home sale price in State College was $399,983, according to real estate company Rocket Homes. This is a 0.6% increase from the previous year.
A Pennsylvania resident would need to work 145 hours per week at the minimum wage to be able to afford a typically priced, two-bedroom rental home, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. For a one-bedroom rental, someone working for the minimum wage would need to clock 119 hours each week, the NLIHC reports. An “affordable rent” for someone working 40 hours a week at the minimum wage would be just $377, far below average prices, the organization says.
The average gas price in Pennsylvania is $3.37 per gallon as of Jan. 28, according to auto club AAA. Fuel is one of the few categories that’s seen price relief in recent months.
From 2009, when the minimum wage was last increased, to 2020, the value of a dollar fell by about 20%, Klingensmith said. But from 2020 to early 2025, it fell another 20%.
“This more rapid inflation has been very visible for the average Pennsylvanian,” Klingensmith said.
Klingensmith said the U.S. economy as a whole is still strong, which bodes well for Pennsylvania, but there are challenges, including the blocking of the U.S. Steel and Nippon merger, potentially high tariffs and uncertainty about future federal policies.
“The main goods we import from Canada are petroleum, cars, wood, and paper to name a few. If the tariffs were to occur, then we should expect the price of all of those goods to increase for the everyday Pennsylvanian,” Klingensmith said.
What’s a living wage in Centre County?
Here’s how the living wage breaks down in Centre County and State College by household size, according to MIT:
$23.15 for a single adult with no children
$40.91 for a single adult with one child
$52.72 for a single adult with two children
$15.67 each for two working adults and no children
$22.86 each for two working adults and one child
$28.92 each for two working adults and two children
Centre County’s living wage for a single adult without children has increased by $5.54 per hour since December 2022, or $11,523.20 per year for someone working 2,080 hours annually. The MIT living wage in State College in 2022 was $17.61, the CDT previously reported.
Here’s how the living wage for a single adult with no children compares in a few nearby counties:
Clearfield County: $19.03
Clinton County: $19.76
Union County: $19.93
Mifflin County: $19.20
Huntingdon County: $19.54
Blair County: $18.96
In Pittsburgh, a single adult without children has a living wage of $21.13, MIT reports, while the living wage for the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area is $24.12.
