Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf reportedly said it was 'embarrassing' the state minimum wage has been $7.25 for more than a decade

• Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf reportedly said the state's minimum wage was "embarrassing."
• The state hasn't lifted it since adopting the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage in 2009.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has reportedly called it "embarrassing" that the state has a lower minimum wage than its all neighbors, having not raised it in 12 years.

The state adopted the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in 2009, which superseded the state's minimum wage of $7.15 an hour.

The six states that neighbor Pennsylvania - Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia - all have higher minimum wages.

"That's embarrassing," Wolf said Thursday while speaking to elected officials and labor leaders in Allentown about labor laws and the current jobs market, per a report by The Morning Call.

"I mean, you might as well put a billboard on the border of Pennsylvania and say to workers, 'No need to apply to work, we don't really want you'."

Pennsylvania's minimum wage has only risen three times since 1997.

It's one of only 20 states that either uses the federal minimum wage or doesn't have a minimum wage.

Many states are working towards wages of $15 an hour, and the District of Columbia already has a minimum wage of $15.20 an hour.

In a press release issued Thursday, Wolf's office said that he had proposed raising Pennsylvania's minimum wage for seven years "but the legislature has failed to act."

Wolf urged the state's General Assembly to pass one of two bills that would raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour and increase it by another $1 each year until it reached $15.

The labor shortage is pushing up wages

Wolf said on Thursday that businesses need to "stop asking why there is a labor shortage" and "start asking how we can make jobs better."

Wages were already rising because of the push for a $15 federal minimum wage, but the labor shortage is adding further fuel to the fire as workers quit their jobs in search of better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Companies including McDonald's, Chipotle, and Starbucks have all said they'll raise wages, and many are eyeing $15 an hour or higher.

The owner of restaurant chain Farm Burger previously hold Insider that the huge shortage of restaurant workers has led to a "bidding war" for staff that's driving wages up across the industry.

"Your restaurant neighbor next door might offer $1 more, then you go back and offer $1 more over that to just retain your people," he said.