Gov. Josh Shapiro, according to an Associated Press report in last Wednesday’s Sun-Gazette, considers raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to be part of the state’s “unfinished business” from his first year in office.

Neither the Associated Press nor the Center Square, which also reported on his remarks, indicated if the governor wants an increase to $15 an hour. That figure, however, has been the starting point every time the proposal has surfaced and resurfaced over the more-than-a-decade span Pennsylvania has considered acting.

When the issue first surfaced and as it has repeatedly resurfaced, we were open-minded about a smaller increase, but with reservations.

As the nature of the labor market has shifted and workers have been able to secure better starting wages without government action — at many chains $15 an hour or thereabouts — we believe our reservations have been proven warranted.

Higher wages contribute significantly to the inflationary spiral that is burdening families with higher bills at grocery stores and elsewhere. This spiral is particularly burdensome to elderly Pennsylvanians on fixed incomes.

And it remains the case that the cost of living and particularly of housing is radically different in Unityville or Avis than in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square or Society Hill neighborhoods. One significant flaw with federal and statewide minimum wage policies is that they fail to account for these differences. As we’ve noted, it is a flaw with centralized, top-down, one-size-fits-all decision making on a variety of issues, and an important reason our federalist, decentralized system works so well to address the needs of American families and communities.

We still are open to the possibility that a small increase to the minimum wage may be necessary, though our fears about its unintended consequences are stronger than ever.

But a $15-an-hour minimum wage — or any figure too close to that — excessively burdens small businesses, constitutes too great a risk of further accelerating the inflationary spiral and fails to account for the lower cost of living that rural Pennsylvania thankfully offers families. We hope our governor and state Legislature can recognize these aspects of the seemingly unending debate over Pennsylvania’s minimum wage and, if necessary, finally compromise on a more realistic figure for our communities.