PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania National Guard members can expect a pay raise, thanks to a bill Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law Monday as part of the state budget.
It raises the minimum pay rate from $100 to $180 a day when members are called in for "special state" or "active state" duty.
In those times, Pennsylvania’s governor gives members an order to help with different events, missions, disasters, and emergencies.
Pointing to the job National Guard members did during the COVID-19 pandemic, state Sen. Katie Muth, D-Royersford, said this pay raise is a way to thank them.
"Our National Guard members, we always knew they were critical. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw how valuable they really are to our communities, from helping with our food banks, coming into our nursing homes to care for our loved ones when staffing shortages occurred, and also when COVID took over a lot of our long term care facilities,” said Muth, the bill’s co-sponsor.
"They had not had a pay increase since 2016, and the $100 a day minimum, prior to it being changed, was about $8 an hour based on a 12 hour shift."
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In recent years, the Pennsylvania National Guard supported numerous COVID-19 efforts throughout Philadelphia and Pennsylvania during the current pandemic. Guard members were called to serve during protests after the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020, and protests after police shot and killed Walter Wallace, Jr. in October of that year.
They also went to Washington, D.C. to support security during the inauguration of President Joe Biden in January 2021, and traveled to Poland to support a NATO mission in 2019.
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Muth's team said the last time the Pennsylvania National Guard saw a bump in pay was 2016, when the $75 daily rate went up to $100.
They added that she worked on the legislation with Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Connellsville. The bill had previously passed out of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, but was not considered for a vote on the Senate floor.
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