- The Senate unanimously voted to increase the minimum wage during the pandemic to $ 15 per hour, which neither party ever supported.
- The amendment was proposed by Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa.
- The attempt comes as Democrats try to pass a $ 1.9 billion stimulus package.
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The Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a Republican amendment aimed at preventing Democrats from doing something they never wanted to do: double the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour during the pandemic.
In fact, Democrats, as well as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, joined the Republicans in driving the fact home.
Instead of doubling the federal minimum wage before the end of the pandemic, President Joe Biden and the Congress Democrats are proposing to gradually increase it to $ 15 per hour by 2025 as part of their $ 1.9 billion stimulus package.
The amendment by Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, appears to be an attempt to misrepresent the Democrats’ position – to set a minimum wage of $ 15 ‘during a global pandemic’ – and the centrist Democrats to put in place to lift divisions within the party. the wage increase plan.
The amendment would specifically give the chair of the Senate Budget Committee the right to undermine a wage increase as part of the reconciliation process – a parliamentary maneuver that would allow the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass legislation in the upper house by a simple majority. instead of the 60 votes is usually required.
Sanders, an independent from Vermont and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said during the floor debate that he “will do everything in my power to ensure that a minimum wage of $ 15 is included in this reconciliation bill.” He rejects the Republican framework that Democrats want to double wages before the pandemic is over.
“It was never my intention to immediately raise the minimum wage during the pandemic to $ 15 an hour,” Sanders said. “My legislation is gradually raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour over a five-year period, and that’s what I believe we should do.”
Sanders placed the amendment on a non-recorded vote in a move that likely dismissed criticism of his quest to raise the minimum wage.
“We need to end the famine crisis in Iowa and across the United States,” he added.
A senior Democratic aide, who granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak in public, argued that Republicans hated the attempt to force moderate Democrats to take a politically difficult vote.
“This is not Bernie’s first rodeo,” the assistant said. “No one needs to vote hard on a message amendment and we can still try to pass the minimum wage through the Reconciliation Bill.”
It remains unclear whether the Democrats will succeed in approving the minimum wage increase through the strict budget rules that determine the reconciliation process.
The federal minimum wage of $ 7.25 per hour was last increased in 2009.
Earlier this month, Ernst spoke out against including a wage increase as part of a stimulus package, saying it ‘liberal priorities“would harm small businesses.
Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Liberal Economic Policy Institute, said Insider would have a minimal impact, in the worst case and likely to benefit businesses as well as workers, with higher wages reducing the expensive turnover of employees.
However, despite Republican opposition, raising the minimum wage is popular with voters. According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 61% of Americans support the Democrats’ attempt to raise it to $ 15 an hour.
Twenty states have already raised their own minimum wage since 2021 began.
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