The debate over a minimum wage of $ 15
Millions of people in the country are asking for a minimum wage of $ 15, and small business owners are afraid that their businesses will be paralyzed, while minimum wage workers are hoping for better days ahead.
Is any increase better than no increase?
That may be the question some Senate Democrats are asking themselves as they try to pass a $ 15-hour minimum increase within the $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 relief package, which seems almost impossible.
Democrats have made it clear they want to increase the federal minimum wage to the number, but last week an almost fatal blow was inflicted when the Senate MP decided that the increase should not be included in the measure.
There is also no serious hope that the Senate will eliminate the filibuster. Politico reported on Monday that the party “could run the risk of getting nothing unless it enters into talks with Republicans.”
Democrats have a ten-vote lead in the House and are tied with the Senate 50-50. Democratic senses Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Cinema of Arizona acted against the minimum wage increase in the bill, and other moderates also expressed their concern.
In order for the Senate to pass the bill – including the pay rise – every Democrat will be needed and ten Republicans will win to reach the 60-vote threshold. The number is impossible with the addition of the minimum wage as it is currently written. But some Republicans seem willing to negotiate.
Sens. Tom Cotton and Mitt Romney wrote on FoxNews.com on Monday that it’s time for the minimum wage increase.
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But they wrote: ‘Many Democrats depend on a serious plan to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. Their plan does not have the votes to succeed, and even if it would destroy a minimum wage of $ 15 to 1.4 million jobs. , according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). ‘
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Their bill, called the Higher Lages for American Workers Act, “would increase the federal minimum wage over time to $ 10 an hour and ensure that all profits are attributed to legal workers, not illegal immigrants.”
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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is considered a moderate, told Politico that she did not understand the ‘all-or-nothing’ approach.
“Going from $ 7.25 to $ 10 an hour … is a significant and long overdue increase. Why would the progressive [Sen.] Chuck [Schumer] is it clear to listen against it? It sounds like Chuck wants a problem, not a solution. ‘
Associated Press contributed to this report