WASHINGTON – Bernie Sanders, Josh Hawley and Amazon do not often find themselves on the same side of an issue.
But years of stagnant wages that could not keep up with the cost of living and the political realignment that Donald Trump spurred bring together more than just Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont; Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri; and Amazon, one of America’s largest companies.
The politics of the minimum wage are messy, which has divided the business community and made strange bedfellows of populists on the right and left.
Progressive people were furious after the White House conceded a statement by a Senate MP that a minimum wage increase to $ 15 an hour could not be included in the Covid-19 bill passed by Congress. President Joe Biden has promised to try again.
For the first time in years, Democrats can find a receptive audience of big business interests and some Republicans for raising the minimum wage – though not quite up to $ 15. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the title of business venture in Washington, says the current federal minimum of $ 7.25 is “outdated.”
Holly Sklar, who runs a coalition of hundreds of companies supporting a $ 15 minimum wage called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, said: ‘It’s 2021. Whatever people do in 2012, 2013, 2014 or 2015 $ 15 thought, a lot of time has passed. It should look different. The world has changed. ‘
“What business do they have?”
Corporate America is in the midst of a recovery, not only as a result of Washington’s Democratic takeover, but also as a result of sweeping changes that are reportedly responding to public outcry over race and justice.
What is seen on the left as a reshuffle has caused a conservative setback.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was once a bastion of libertarianism for businesses, a panel declared ‘The Awokening of Corporate America’ last month. But at the same conference, veteran Steve Cortes of the Trump campaign argued that a $ 15 minimum wage should be a key pillar of a future Republican platform, along with “border sovereignty” and “toughness in trade.” .
Amazon, which has raised its starting salary to $ 15 an hour, is trying to lead the charge, and is actively engaged in Congress, after taking out full-page ads in The New York Times supporting the Raise the Wage Act. Target and Best Buy also set their lowest wages at $ 15 per hour, while Walmart set the minimum at $ 11 and Costco had just risen to $ 16.
“We’ve seen the positive impact this has had on our employees, their families and their communities,” Amazon said in a blog post.
Subsidiary support grows even though it is not necessarily for $ 15.
At least six Republican senators have spoken out in favor of raising wages to $ 10 an hour or more; Hawley proposed a wage of $ 15 per hour for companies with revenues of more than $ 1 billion.
“For decades, the wages of everyday, working Americans have stagnated while monopoly corporations have consolidated the industry into the industry, securing record profits for CEOs and investment bankers,” said Hawley, a potential presidential candidate who faced heat after facing Trump supporters outside the Capitol said in a statement on January 6.
Others on the right view Amazon’s move as self-serving. Critics pointing to other parts of Washington putting pressure on Amazon, some of which are due to antitrust issues and the company’s working conditions, claim the company could use benevolence points.
And they say that Amazon is not talking about business, but rather trying to chase its competitors out of pocket by enforcing a cost increase that small businesses could not absorb.
“Is it to interfere with the new Biden administration? I have to say yes,” said Alfred Ortiz, CEO of Job Creators Network, a conservative small business network founded by Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot. . “Which business required these small businesses to pay $ 15 an hour?”
The group recently put up a billboard in Times Square, New York, asking, “How does Amazon bulldoze its Main Street competitors without getting dirty?” The answer: ‘They get Congress a minimum wage of $ 15.’
The move from Amazon to $ 15 was only after Sanders introduced a bill called the ‘Stop BEZOS Act’ in 2018, which would force companies like Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos, to pay the bill for government safety net programs passed by employees are used, such as food stamps. .
“We listened to our critics, thought carefully about what we wanted to do and decided to lead,” Bezos said at the time.
Opponents of raising the minimum wage are pointing more and more to Amazon to portray their struggle as a case that pits big business against small ones, especially as Amazon’s profits skyrocket, while small restaurants and mom-and-pop stores were hammered by the recession caused by pandemics.
“If you’re already paying more than $ 15, it’s in your interest that your competitors also pay more than $ 15,” said Jerry Parrish, chief economist at the Florida Chamber Foundation, who campaigned for the state’s minimum wage. last year.
‘Enter into an agreement’
Traditionally, the minimum wage has broken a rift in Washington – business and its Republican allies on the one hand and labor and its Democratic allies on the other.
But the struggle over the minimum wage is now divided into three camps, none of which neatly match the expected ideological or business groupings: there are those who support a full minimum wage of $ 15, those who do not raise the wage at all and a large group in the middle open to increase the minimum to, for example, $ 10 per hour, but not up to $ 15.
The third camp contains centralists in Congress, such as Sens Joe Manchin, DW.Va., and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and the mainstream business lobbies, such as the Business Roundtable, which represents some of the world’s most powerful executives. , and the Chamber of Commerce.
The room, with its imposing Beaux Arts headquarters across from Lafayette Square from the White House, backed Republicans almost exclusively in congressional elections until a stir last year as the C-suite grew tired of Trump’s trade wars and unpredictable government.
Last year, the House supported 23 new Democrats – including 18 who voted for a minimum wage of $ 15 – and 29 first Republicans, compared to just seven Democrats and 191 Republicans in the previous election cycle.
“We are open to discussion on raising the minimum wage,” said Glenn Spencer, the chamber’s senior vice president of employment policy. “The question is, are there enough Democrats willing to enter into an agreement that will lead to a minimum wage increase? Or will progressive people keep their politically motivated $ 15 and end up with zero?”
Surveys consistently show that a majority of Americans support the increase in the minimum wage, including a strong contingent of Republicans. A growing number of large cities and states have their own wage floors at $ 15.
Florida voters overwhelmingly approved the referendum last year, voting 61 to 39 percent to raise the state’s minimum wage to $ 15, even if they voted for Trump. And Arkansas, a relatively low-income and deeply conservative state, has set its minimum at $ 11.
Some business groups and Republicans saw the writing on the wall and rushed to prepare the issue.
The National Federation of Independent Affairs has shown a tougher rhetorical line against the minimum wage increases than the Chamber of Commerce or the Round Table for Business, although all stress that small businesses need to be isolated.
“Small businesses are much less likely than larger businesses to have cash reserves or profit margins to absorb the increase in labor costs,” the National Federation of Independent Vice President Kevin Kuhlman wrote in a letter to lawmakers last month.
Democrats were also sensitive to the issue. When their minimum wage measure was removed from the Covid-19 bill, Sanders had an idea to impose tax penalties for large businesses that pay less than $ 15 per hour and to offer tax incentives for small businesses that pay more.
The plan was abandoned, and a stand-alone amendment to raise the wage to $ 15 failed in the Senate on Friday, with eight Democrats voting against it.
With Manchin at $ 15, Democrats may have to try to find a compromise, to the great concern of the left.
“I think the Democrats’ less than $ 15 at any given moment is political suicide, given the moment,” said Joseph Geevarghese, who previously led the fight for a $ 15 campaign and is now the executive director of Our Revolution. a progressive activist group joining Sanders.
The negotiations may be the first real test of whether business interests are really interested in giving a new leaf to the new administration. They may have to put pressure on Republican senators to get to the required 60 votes.
Meanwhile, labor activists like Sara Fearrington, a minister at a Waffle House in Durham, North Carolina, say they will continue to fight for a higher wage.
“We’re going to keep on strike, we’re going to keep organizing, and we’re going to keep coming to the table until we get it,” she said.