Sen. Bernard Sanders launched laws Thursday to lift the federal minimal wage to $17 an hour — setting a brand new purpose put up for liberals on the problem.
Mr. Sanders, a Vermont impartial, mentioned a minimal wage hike on the federal stage was lengthy overdue, on condition that inflation has hoisted the price of dwelling.
“If you work 40 to 50 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty,” mentioned Mr. Sanders. “Today in America, it is unacceptable that while the richest people have become much richer, over 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.”
Congress final raised the federal minimal wage to $7.25 per hour in 2009.
Mr. Sanders and different liberals have lengthy pushed to hike the federal minimal wage. The goal for years was $15 per hour.
Now Mr. Sanders and allies inside organized labor say that’s now not adequate. They say inflation has pushed the price of dwelling increased and staff must make not less than $17 to remain out of poverty.
“We live in a country with wealth on levels never seen before in human history,” mentioned Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO. “Thirty million dollar homes … mega yachts, billionaires who fly rockets into space, while we have people who work 40 hours a week but cannot live with basic dignity.”
The invoice comes the identical week that state legislators in New York voted to lift the minimal wage from $15 to $17 an hour. New York lawmakers are phasing within the wage hike by 2027, at which level the minimal wage may even be listed to inflation. In future years, which means the wage will rise by itself as costs rise with out the necessity for lawmaker approval.
Michael Saltsman, the chief director of the fiscally conservative Employment Policies Institute, mentioned not less than 2 million jobs could possibly be misplaced nationally if the federal authorities follows New York’s lead.
“Economists have demonstrated how harmful this unprecedented increase will be,” he mentioned. “Yet Sanders and his union allies are choosing politics over employees for bad policy that’s already been rejected by members of Sanders’ own party.”
Mr. Sanders mentioned that regardless of conservative criticism, Republican and Democratic states had proved that elevating the minimal wage was not a “radical idea.”
“In November of last year, nearly 60% of the people in Nebraska — a state with a Republican governor and two Republican senators — voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” he mentioned. “That tells you this is not a red issue or a blue issue; it’s an American issue.”
The invoice faces lengthy odds of changing into legislation, since Republicans management the House and Democrats maintain a slim 51-49 seat majority within the Senate.
Several reasonable Democrats prior to now have expressed concern about elevating the federal minimal wage to even $15 an hour.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III helped kill a push by fellow Democrats to incorporate a $15 minimal wage hike in President Biden’s local weather change legislation final yr. At the time, Mr. Manchin proposed elevating the wage to $11 an hour, however solely with bipartisan help from Republicans.
As chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, Mr. Sanders plans to carry a vote on his invoice by mid-June.
Mr. Sanders mentioned the push is required to border the talk a couple of dwelling wage and revenue inequality in America.
“Frankly, it’s embarrassing for us to be here today and [for us] to have to talk about a reality where people need to work two or three jobs to put food on the table for their kids,” mentioned Mr. Sanders.
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