A modest proposal regarding raising the minimum wage.

[Tom Rinaldo]

As I understand it, the House version of the Covid Aid Bill would have raised the Federal minimum wage in increments, reaching $15 an hour in 2025. I don't know the exact figure, but obviously had that bill been enacted, the Federal minimum wage on December 31, 2022 would remain below $15 an hour, while being significantly higher than it is currently.

My proposal is that Democrats now seek passage of legislation that will raise the federal minimum wage, say in six month or so increments, between now and January 1, 2023, to whatever level the House bill would have achieved by that date. And leave it at that for now. Doing so would allow so called "moderates" in both parties to claim victory in having resisted officially raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. They could vote to authorize a lesser increased wage instead, but in reality Americans workers would benefit no less under such a scenario through 2022 than they would have had the House version of the Covid Relief bill been approved as originally offered.

Midterm elections next occur in November 2022. If Democrats can lock in for America's working class the same pay raises between now and January 2023 that was proposed in the House Covid bill, the next Congress can pick up the ball from there, passing legislation to further raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by the same point in 2025 that the current House version of the Covid relief bill now calls for. Meanwhile workers will have gotten all the raises in the minimum wage that Democrats initially sought to provide through 2022. Democrats can campaign during the 2022 midterms on completing the job, promising to raise the minimum wage to the exact same target level ($15 an hour) on the exact same timeline (by 2025) as they originally proposed. Hopefully Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress, elected on that campaign promise, can make such legislation among the first priorities tackled when Congress subsequently reconvenes.

[marble falls]

1. Just make it equal to the buying power of the original minimum wage: about $15.00/hr.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Sure, great idea. Can you, as Captain Picard would say, "make it so"?

The goal is easy enough to define, it's the strategy for actually getting there that's in question.

[marble falls]

5. That's exactly how it's going to happen in the end. Just like Medicare happened, like SSI happened .

... they reach a tipping point and happen. We keep on agitating, pushing past the center and tip.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. Agreed. Meanwhile I was envisioning how millions of workers could get their first raise NOW

on a path toward earning $15 an hour by 2015. I think the midterms can be that tipping point.

[GregariousGroundhog]

17. The buying power of the original minimum wage is about $4.64

The minimum wage was at it's greatest buying power when it was $1.60/hr in 1968. That would be equivalent of $12.03 today.

[Tom Rinaldo]

24. Of course in 1968 "they" said the minimum wage was to help teenagers get trained on their 1st job

Republicans didn't try to pretend that it was a living wage then because they claimed no one actually had to live off of it. It was never true, but that lie has become ridiculously transparent by now.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Typo. The min wage would have reached $15 in 2022/23 IIRC...nt

[Tom Rinaldo]

6. Where do you get that. I keep seeing 2025

Biden continues to push $15 federal minimum wage
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/politics/15-dollar-minimum-wage-biden/index.html

"...While he acknowledged that increasing the wage could squeeze some employers, he pointed to economists and studies that say the impact would be minor. Plus, the President argued, it would help those stuck at the minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.

"No one should work 40 hours a week and live in poverty," Biden said. "But it's totally legitimate for small business owners to be concerned."

The controversial measure, which was included in his $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal last month, is part of the package working its way through the House. The legislation, which could be voted on as soon as next week, calls for hiking the hourly wage in stages until it hits $15 in 2025."

[Wounded Bear]

7. You may be right, but your post reads 2015...

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Aha! So it did, in one place yes...

Corrected. Thanks!

[TwilightZone]

4. The prior House bill isn't really relevant.

It wasn't going to pass the Senate so it's unlikely to be the basis for the next minimum wage bill.

Democrats will pursue whatever can make it through both houses. It'll likely require negotiation, just like the Covid relief bill and pretty much every significant bill in Congressional history.

[N E 1]

10. AMERICAN CongressPersons and Senators should be mandated

By law to live on $15.00 an hour for 25-30 hours per week. They should be mandated to do it for at least 6 months. This includes the same for their Healthcare as well.

They just might learn empathy, compassion and be humbled the struggles of the "average Americans." I imagine their opinions might change! If not, then they should be mandated to repeat the experience all over again.

History is suppose to teach us to learn from our mistakes, or else we repeat them.

Sounds fair and just to me.

[DesertRat]

15. I understand what you're saying

Most of them have no idea of the struggles of the average American.

But who would mandate it?

Welcome to DU!

[The Magistrate]

11. An Excellent Idea, And A Sound Policy, Sir

For full agitprop benefits, I might suggest making each six-month increment a separate vote. 'X voted three times against raising your pay' makes a better attack line 'Y likes raising wages so much he voted for doing that three times'....

[Donkees]

12. Raise the Wage Act 2021 Schedule:

2021 - 9.50
2022 - 11.00
2023 - 12.50
2024 - 14.00
2025 - 15.00
2026 Index to median wages

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Raise-the-Wage-Section-by-Section-FINAL.pdf

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. Thanks for that info. I didn't know where to look for it...

...but I should of guessed. OK, that is along the lines of the schedule I expected, and it would enable someone (like Joe Manchin for example) to vote for legislation now that did not raise the minimum wage above $12.50 an hour, if that bill reached that rate in January 2023 but did not lay out any additional raises in the minimum wage AFTER January 2023.

So that could be our strategy. Try to deliver raises in the minimum wage up to $12.50 an hour by 2023. Then return for part two legislation in January 2023 in the NEXT Congress to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025. Hopefully our majorities in Congress by then will support the second raise and (between the two bills) we will achieve the original objective of reaching $15 an hour by 2025

[Donkees]

14. Bernie introduced this same bill in the last Congress, but McConnell just stalled it ...

Now that Bernie is the Chair of the Budget Committee, it seems it's now or never. Way back in 2001, Bernie sponsored the 'Minimum Wage Restoration Act' which would have put us further ahead than the crumbs offered now. No one will fight harder than Bernie, as long as we are fortunate to have him.

Rep. Sanders H.R.2812 - Minimum Wage Restoration Act 2001
Sponsor: Rep. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT-At Large] (Introduced 08/02/2001)
Committees: House - Education and the Workforce
H.R.2812 - Minimum Wage Restoration Act

Minimum Wage Restoration Act - Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase the minimum wage (currently $5.15 per hour): (1) to $6.65, for 2002; (2) to $8.15, for 2003; and (3) by indexing to the cost of living, in the same manner as benefits are indexed under the Social Security Act, for 2004 and thereafter.

[Hortensis]

16. Modest proposal: Stop listening to Sanders saying what is possible.

I'm very angry with Sanders right now for not falling back to an @$11 raise that might have been possible through this bill. Whatever goal he's pursuing by refusing to do so, it's NOT getting more money to people in trouble who are currently earning $7.25.

As for the OP's proposal, that's apparently in line with most approaches.

But the Republicans have always blocked MW increases. I really hope BEFORE the 2022 midterms we can somehow achieve a sizable increase, mostly likely the only way Democrats have gotten all previous MW increases through. After, who knows who will control either house? That successful method would require a situation where they MUST pass a bill that we've slipped a MW provision into.

[GregariousGroundhog]

18. Yes, slipping a minimum wage increase into a defense spending bill is probably the easiest route

The minimum wage's greatest purchasing power was when it was $1.60 in 1968, about $12.03 in today's currency.

The Senate Armed Services committee could slip a prevision into a defense spending bill increasing the minimum wage in yearly $0.50 or $0.75 cent increments until it hits the same purchasing power as the 1968 wage and then basically dare Senate Republicans to vote down the defense spending bill. The optics of voting against a defense bill over a yearly 50 cent wage increase would be terrible.

[Hortensis]

19. :) Ah, 1968 (actually 69). I was paid $0.13/hour as a 17-year-old waitress

in a casino in Nevada, and the law didn't allow overtime pay for women (to prevent exploitation of women). The tips made it the highest paid job I've ever held, though.

Speaking of defense spending, I tried to find discussion of what upcoming situations might create a must-pass bill for them, like some major vehicle for the wealth transfer dear to their hearts. There must be some somewhere, but I didn't look long because I apparently needed different search terms and found nothing even sorta close.

[Tom Rinaldo]

20. Who knows what he might have accepted IF the Senate parliamentarian gave a green light to inclusion

At that point Sanders and everyone else who wanted a $15 and hour minimum wage increase would have been involved in intense behind the scenes negotiations within the Democratic caucus with the likes of Sinema and Manchin. None of us can say what the end game would have looked like in that scenario, and the degree to which the public posture taken by Sanders, Manchin and others were part of initial bargaining positions.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled against including a minimum wage increase in the Covid relief bill and Democrats lacked the votes in the Senate to over rule her. Even Biden was signaling that the game was up for including a minimum wage increase into the relief bill at that point. Bernie not initially agreeing to $11 an hour with Manchin, in discussions that preceded the actual debate on amendments, might have built pressure for both of them signing off on $12.50 as a compromise in the final hours if any increase had been possible. However all of that is moot. NO raise was possible in that bill, not to $9, not to $11, not to $15.

If you really want to blame someone for blocking inclusion of any size minimum wage increase in the Covid Relief Bill that just passed through reconciliation, it is more logical to blame our President than Bernie for that. Biden always signaled that he would accept the ruling of the Senate parliamentarian and seemingly made no effort to lobby Democratic Senators to over rule her decision. Biden holds more sway over Democratic Senators, especially moderate ones, than Sanders ever will. To be clear, I do not in any way blame Biden, he always knew that there would not be 50 Democratic votes in the Senate to over rule the Senate parliamentarian.

[Hortensis]

23. If we'd disregarded the parliamentarian, it would have gone to a vote

AGAIN and the amendment stripped out. What NOT to understand about 58 (FIFTY-EIGHT!) senators voting against it?

Everyone who's been funneling disinformation mislead people badly by making them think it was possible. WHY did they? And WHY did those who fell for it ignore all other information? Many here knew it.

Past time to accept the simple truth: 58. It was NOT going to happen, no matter how many cynical maneuvers dragged this out, for unstated reasons, before final failure.

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. Self Delete. Mistakenly posted n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

22. Self Delete. Mistakenly posted n/t