U.S. House Democrats have introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, which would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 over five years. The legislation would also guarantee that all workers are paid at least the full federal minimum wage by gradually phasing out the subminimum wages for tipped workers, youth workers, and workers with disabilities.
Congress has not increased the federal minimum wage in more than a decade; the longest stretch since it was first established in 1938. It currently stands at $7.25 per hour.
“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the $7.25 federal minimum wage was economically and morally indefensible. Now, the pandemic is highlighting the gross imbalance between the productivity of our nation’s workers and the wages they are paid. Many of the essential workers who have braved a public health crisis to keep food on the table and care for our loved ones are still not being paid enough to provide for themselves or their families,” said House Committee on Education and Labor Chair Robert C. Scott (VA-03), who helped to introduce the legislation, in a statement. “The Raise the Wage Act is a critical step toward lifting hardworking people out of poverty, addressing income inequality, and building back a better economy where everyone can succeed.”
“Let’s be clear. The $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage is a starvation wage,” said Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who also helped to introduce the Act, in a statement. “No person in America can make it on $8, $10, or $12 an hour. In the United States of America a job must lift workers out of poverty, not keep them in it. The time for talk is over. No more excuses. It is time for Congress to act to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.”
Related: Restaurant Workers Celebrate Biden's Plans to Support Industry; San Francisco Approves Hazard Pay for Grocery Employees.
from Industry Operations https://ift.tt/3t58XuK
No comments: