Can You Imagine A Democrat Opposing An Increase In The Minimum Wage?

Pelosi's not taking any crap from New Dems on raising the minimum wage

At her leadership meeting this week, Pelosi informed her leadership team the democrats would be putting forth a $15/hour minimum wage bill. Most members were delighted of course-- but not all. There was some concern from the freshmen class reps that some of the freshmen who had just flipped red districts could be harmed by the Democratic position. Pelosi was adamant about going forward and on Wednesday Bernie introduced the bill, the Raise the Wage Act, in the Senate and Bobby Scott (D-VA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, introduced it in the House. The bill will gradually raise the $7.25 minimum (which hasn't increased since 2007) to $15.00. Scott made the obvious point-- obvious but always denied by conservatives-- that "When we put money in the pockets of American workers, they spend that money in their communities. So this bill will stimulate the economy on main street."

In introducing it, Bernie reminded his colleagues that "Just a few short years ago, we were told that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour was 'radical.' But a grassroots movement of millions of workers throughout this country refused to take 'no' for an answer. It is not a radical idea to say a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. The current $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. It must be increased to a living wage of $15 an hour."

Scott had introduced the same bill in Many of 2017 and after getting 153 co-sponsors on day one, Democrats kept trickling in right through the end of last year, the foot-draggers being 4 conservatives: Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL), Beto O'Rourke (New Dem-TX), Jacky Rosen (NV) and Brad Schneider (Blue Dog-IL). No Republicans.

If passed by the House-- a near certainty-- and the Senate-- unlikely-- and then signed by Trump-- also unlikely-- this is what the legislation would do:

• Gradually raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 over the next six years to lift millions of workers out of poverty, stimulate local economies, and restore the value of minimum wage ($8.55 this year);

• Index future increases in the federal minimum wage to median wage growth to ensure the value of minimum wage does not once again erode over time;

• Guarantees tipped workers are paid at least the full federal minimum wage by repealing the subminimum wage for tipped workers, which will ensure consistent, livable pay;

• Guarantees teen workers are paid at least the full federal minimum wage by repealing the rarely used subminimum wage for youth workers; and

• End subminimum wage certificates for individuals with disabilities to provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities to be competitively employed, taxpaying citizens and participate more fully in their communities. 


The proposal, which has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 181 co-sponsors in the House, is unlikely to become law with the Senate in Republican hands and President Trump in the White House, but it underlines the efforts by liberals to push an issue they think will be popular with voters ahead of the 2020 elections.

Democrats are very aware that the bill will be a powerful tool in the 2020 elections. Bernie reminded his colleagues that "We are living today in an American economy that is doing very well for the people on top. Not so well for working families.

The old right-wing trope-- which has been disproven from the time FDR tried passing a national minimum wage in 1933-- is that unintended consequences from raising the minimum wage could force businesses to lay off workers or a reduce working hours. The Supreme Court had always ruled against the minimum wage until FDR threatened to pack the Court. In 1936, the minimum wage was finally declared constitutional, although, many Republicans still don't accept that. The 1938 minimum wage law only applied to employees engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce," and it wasn't until 1961 and 1966, that the federal minimum wage was extended to employees in large retail and service enterprises, local transportation and construction, state and local government employees, as well as other smaller expansions; a grandfather clause in 1990 drew most employees into the purview of federal minimum wage policy, which was set tat $3.80. Ever time progressives have brought up raising it, conservatives whine about how it will destroy businesses. But every time the minimum wage has increased, economic activity took an upswing.

Conservatives, including some New Dems and Blue Dogs, as well as most Republicans, still say $15/hour is too high or at least too high in some regions of the country. John Tester (D-MT): "It’s not something I’m crazy about." Among Democrats, the Senate's most conservative members-- Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Joe Manchin (WV), Michael Bennet (CO), Mark Warner (VA), Tom Carper (DE), Doug Jones (AL), Chris Coons (DE), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Maggie Hassan (NH) and Angus King I-ME), as well as Tester-- have refused to co-sponsor the bill.

A 2014 analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that President Obama’s proposal to boost the minimum wage to $10.10 would have increased pay for 1.65 million workers, but also put half a million workers out of a job. That tradeoff, the CBO projected, would results in 900,000 fewer people living in poverty.

The Employment Policies Institute (EPI), a right-leaning think tank, estimated that a $15 minimum wage would put as many as 2 million people out of work, but that estimate assumed the wage would rise by 2020, not over the course of five years, as in the Democratic proposal.

...In August, Rep. Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL) wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing that the vast regional differences in the country meant that an across-the-board approach to the minimum wage could cause problems.

Sewell proposed a regional approach, which would differentiate minimum wages based on cost of living. Spokane, Wash., where the mortgage on a large home costs $600, should not have the same minimum wage as New York City, where $600 gets you a monthly parking spot, she argued.

“The idea that Spokane, Manhattan and Selma should share the same minimum wage is nonsensical and unfair to low-wage workers everywhere,” she wrote, referring to the Alabama city.

The $15 per hour bill’s supporters argue that by 2024, the minimum wage they are offering would be appropriate for the areas with the lowest cost of living.

“By that year of 2024 that the wage will kick in, that will be the floor on all parts of the country,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WiI). He said skeptical Democrats can be won over.

“I think we haven’t shared the data we have with them, and I think once they see that they’ll realize what we’re doing is the right thing,” he said.

When adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage has been on a steady decline for 50 years.

In 1968, when the minimum wage was $1.60, it was worth the same as $11.79 in 2018 dollars, more than 60 percent above the current level.

Sanders called the current minimum wage a “starvation wage” and said that the increase would boost paychecks for 40 million people.

The bill offered by Democrats on Wednesday would also require that tipped workers be paid a full minimum wage, and it would eliminate exemptions for teenagers and people with disabilities. It would require automatic increases over time based on median wage growth to ensure the minimum wage's value doesn't decline over time.

Trump has given conflicting signals over his support for raising the minimum wage.

“Having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country," he said in 2015.

At other times, he has expressed support for a $10 minimum wage and said that it “has to go up.”

PolitiFact awarded him a full flip flop for his shifting positions on the topic in 2016.

Even though it's unlikely to be signed into law until Trump is defeated or impeached, the legislation is a clear declaration of the Democratic Party's values and a hope for something like 40 million workers who struggle to cover the basics day to day.

The thermometer on the right is for Bernie's presidential campaign. The indefatigable folks from #FightFor15 and #RaiseTheWage explained who will benefit when the legislation gets signed into law:

• More than 1 in 4 working people, 90 percent of whom are over the age of 20
• The average age of working people who would get a raise is 36, nearly half have some years of college education, and 20 percent hold associate degrees or higher
• More than 27 percent would be working parents with children, and half would have family incomes of less than $40,000 per year
• Women make up nearly 56 percent of the workers who would benefit from a $15 minimum wage, which would be instrumental in helping to close the gender wage gap
• Raising the minimum wage to $15 would also significantly benefit working people of color, with 40 percent of African American workers and 34 percent of Latinos seeing a pay increase once this law goes into effect