Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Says he is positive about the Democrats’ chance of passing a minimum wage increase in the coronavirus stimulus bill, despite at least two Democrats.
“We feel really good. We think we got a good chance,” Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters on Friday. “We have millions of workers working for starvation wages. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $ 15 an hour, and that’s what the American people want and that’s what I intend to do.”
Moderate Democratic sense. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Both said they were opposed to including the $ 15 minimum wage in the stimulus package.
“What matters is whether it is directly related to short-term Covid relief. And if it is not, I will not support it in this legislation,” Sinema told Politico in an interview published Friday.
U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Cheers during former President Trump’s State of the Nation Address at the US Capitol in Washington, February 4, 2020.
SERIOUSLY RIP THE $ 15 MINIMUM REMUNERATION STRIKE AS ‘PROGRESSIVE DREAM’ THAT WILL SOLVE MORE THAN ONE MILLION RELATIONSHIP
Democrats barely have the majority in the Senate – 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties – meaning any Democratic apostasy could wreak havoc on the chances of the pay rise. (Only 48 senators are actually Democrats. But two independents – Sanders and Senator Angus King, I-Maine – provide a caucus with the Democrats.)
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Speaks to Reporters on Capitol Hill, Washington, Friday, February 12, 2021. (Associated Press)
Republicans have criticized the increase in the minimum wage – especially during the pandemic when so many small businesses are struggling.
DEMS TO HOME COMMITTEE APPROVES $ 15 MINIMUM REMUNERATION IN STIMULUS PACKAGE Despite CBO WARNING 1.4 MILLION RISK ON RISK
The non-partisan congressional budget office said that a minimum wage of $ 15 would probably increase the wages of about 27 million workers, but that it could also cost about $ 1.4 million workers, as business owners cut back on paying their employees more. .
According to the Democrats’ proposal, the wage increase would be phased in until 2025.
The federal minimum wage, which stands at $ 7.25, has not been raised since 2009, although many states have higher wages.
American Joe Manchin, DW.Va. (Getty Images)
Democrats are trying to pass the measure through reconciliation, which means they only need a simple majority, but it requires that it be taken through the office of the non-party member of the Senate.
Sanders told reporters they were “working very hard” to move the measure through the process.
If the minimum wage increase does not stay in the stimulus package, Democrats are likely to introduce a stand-alone bill, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A minimum wage of $ 15 has been a target of Sanders and other progressives for years.
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Late last month, when he introduced the Raise the Lage Act of 2021, he said: ‘Nobody in America can earn it at $ 8, $ 10 or $ 12 an hour. “In the United States, a job must get workers out of poverty, they do not like it,” USA Today reported.