Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) desires to double the federal minimal wage to $15 an hour, with laws filed Tuesday to extend the speed adopted practically twenty years in the past.
“For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline,” Hawley mentioned in a press release to The Hill. “One major culprit of this is the failure of the federal minimum wage to keep up with the economic reality facing hard-working Americans every day.”
The rise would take impact subsequent 12 months, when Hawley’s house state hikes its charge to the identical stage.
Most states, like Missouri, have set minimal hourly wage ranges above the $7.25 federal charge, and practically a dozen of them could have minimal charges at or above $15 an hour after will increase take impact this 12 months.
5 states — Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — have by no means set their very own charges, and three — Georgia, Oklahoma and Wyoming — have state minimums beneath $7.25 per hour. These eight states all default to the federal charge.
The Hawley laws, cosponsored by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), additionally would set automated will increase to match inflation over time to stop future standstills just like the nation has confronted for the reason that final federal hike in 2009.
Minimal wage hikes have traditionally confronted pushback from some enterprise advocacy teams.
“This proposal would more than double the minimum wage and slash over 800,000 jobs,” Rebekah Paxton, analysis director on the Employment Insurance policies Institute, mentioned in a press release on Hawley’s newest push. “An overwhelming majority of economists agree that drastic minimum wage hikes cut employment, limit opportunities for workers and shutter businesses.”
“Hawley’s proposal would take similar failed policies like California’s and export them nationwide,” she added.
It is unclear whether or not the GOP-controlled Senate and Home will take up the bipartisan laws or what the timeline may appear like as lawmakers attempt to hash out President Trump’s precedence laws.
The White Home declined to touch upon Hawley’s proposed minimal wage improve. A spokesperson informed The Hill in an e-mail that they’d not “get ahead of the President on pending legislation.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected the concept of accelerating the minimal wage earlier this 12 months.
However Trump acknowledged in a “Meet the Press” interview a month earlier than the beginning of his second presidency that the present minimal wage is “very low” however mentioned he didn’t need to elevate it to a stage that will finally pressure companies to shutter.
“There is a level at which you could do it, absolutely,” the then-president elect informed host Kristen Welker. “I would consider it.”
Trump added that the talk is “very complicated” as a result of the price of residing varies amongst states.
“It would be nice to have just a minimum wage for the whole country, but it wouldn’t work because you have places where it’s very inexpensive to live,” he mentioned.
