Democrats Reintroduce the Raise The Wage Act

Democrats in the House and Senate reintroduced a bill Tuesday to raise the U.S. minimum wage to $15 per hour. CNBC reports, Democrats reintroduce $15 minimum wage bill with unified control of Congress, White House:

The legislation would gradually hike the pay floor to $15 an hour nationwide by 2025, then tie future increases to median wage growth. The measure would also end pay below the minimum wage for tipped workers, along with certain teens and people with disabilities.

The party has long pushed to raise the federal minimum wage, which has stalled at $7.25 an hour since 2009. On Tuesday, the bill’s sponsors said the effort has taken on more urgency as the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated racial inequity and left millions doing essential work for low pay.

“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the $7.25 federal minimum wage was economically and morally indefensible,” Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, said in a statement. “Now, the pandemic is highlighting the gross imbalance between the productivity of our nation’s workers and the wages they are paid.”

The Democratic-held House passed a version of the bill, known as the Raise The Wage Act  in 2019. It never saw a vote in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Once again that asshole, Mitch McConnell, “The Grim Reaper” of the Senate graveyard where bills go to die.

The power dynamics in Washington have since changed. Democrats hold a narrow majority in an evenly divided Senate, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., supports a $15 an hour minimum wage. So does President Joe Biden, who included the policy in his coronavirus relief package.

The bill has the support of Democratic leadership. $15/Hour Minimum Wage Is Coming As Pelosi And Schumer Support Bernie Sanders Bill:

The bill from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour over 5 years got support from Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer.

Speaker Pelosi said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, “The coronavirus pandemic and economic crises have pulled back the veil on the unconscionable economic disparities that working women, low-income families, and other vulnerable communities have faced for decades. By re-introducing the Chair Bobby Scott’s Raise the Wage Act, which passed on a bipartisan basis in the previous Congress, the Democratic Congress is taking another strong and long-needed step to honor the dignity, dedication and contributions of millions of hard-working Americans. This legislation is a key part of Democrats’ commitment to not only recover from these crises, but to Build Back Better – and to do so in a way that advances justice, prosperity and equality for all Americans.”

Senate Majority Leader Schumer threw his support behind the bill, “Americans working 40 hours a week should be able to put food on the table and a roof over their families’ heads, but with the minimum wage stuck at $7.25, far too many are working hard and still in poverty. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is one step Congress should take right now, particularly with the COVID-19 crisis stretching families’ resources further than ever. I am happy to move forward with this group to make it happen and give the American people a raise.”

Still, if all Democrats supported the bill, the party would have to win over 10 skeptical Republicans to pass it in the Senate. It is unclear if Democrats could use budget reconciliation, a process that requires only a majority vote to pass bills but restricts what can go into the legislation, to approve a wage increase.

Incoming Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and $15 minimum wage champion, has pushed to use budget reconciliation as widespread GOP support for the bill appears doubtful.

“It clearly has to be done by reconciliation. That’s something I’m working very hard on,” he told The Guardian.

Roll Call reports, Minimum wage boost likely headed for budget reconciliation bill:

Raising the federal minimum wage through the budget reconciliation process would be a “stretch,” but House Democrats plan to try it anyway, House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth said Monday.

Yarmuth told CNN the provision could run afoul of the Senate’s so-called Byrd rule, which restricts the use of reconciliation. The rule requires that legislation passed under that procedure must affect spending or revenue and have a budgetary impact that is not “merely incidental” to any policy change.

Whether a boost in the minimum wage would meet that criteria remains an open question, but Yarmuth expressed doubt Monday that such a strategy would work. “To be very candid with you, I think that’s a stretch,” the Kentucky Democrat told CNN.

But he said House Democrats still planned to include a minimum wage increase in any reconciliation instructions that are prepared for a COVID-19 aid package. “Eventually that decision is made by the parliamentarian, so we’ll see,” Yarmuth said.

Bill Dauster, a leading authority on federal budget law and Senate rules, has argued that a minimum wage increase could in fact be passed through reconciliation, which avoids the requirement of amassing 60 votes in the Senate.

Dauster, who served as deputy chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., among other top positions for Senate Democrats during his career, said in a guest op-ed column for CQ Roll Call, Congress should use the budget to raise the minimum wage, that a minimum wage boost has enough budgetary impact to be considered under the Byrd rule.

And even if the parliamentarian rules against the effort, Dauster wrote, the presiding officer of the Senate could choose to overrule that conclusion.

The Raise The Wage Act Of 2021 would increase the pay floor to $9.50 an hour this year, then to $11 next year. The minimum wage would rise to $12.50 per hour in 2023, $14 in 2024 and then $15 in 2025.

The provision to index further increases to median wage growth aims to ensure the country will not go another decade without a higher minimum wage.

A $15 minimum wage has gained traction in pockets of the country. Eight states and Washington, D.C., have now approved increases to that threshold.

The latest was Florida, where more than 60% of voters in November supported a $15 pay floor. Democrats have cited the result, which came as more than 51% of voters in the state backed former President Donald Trump, as evidence for the policy’s popularity.

Advocates have also noted the policy’s potential to cut into racial and gender inequity. In cheering the Raise the Wage Act on Tuesday, the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute said 23% of workers who would benefit from the policy are Black or Latina women.

Congress has not passed an increase in the minimum wage since 2007.