U.S. Senate passes oral amendment to ban federal minimum wage hikes during epidemic

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-UT) in the Senate Metro area of the Capitol on Feb. 4, 2020.

The U.S. Senate unanimously and without objection overnight Thursday (Feb. 4) passed by voice vote the “Ban on Raising the Federal Minimum Wage During an Epidemic” amendment offered by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-UT).

The Senate Republican monitor tweeted just before midnight, “Amendment #767 (Prohibiting federal minimum wage increases during a Communist virus pandemic) offered by Rep. Ernst was approved by voice vote. The amendment is related to the Sanders budget resolution (S.Con.Res. 5).”

The Sanders Budget Resolution, introduced by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is designed to allow Senate Democrats to pass President Biden‘s $1.9 trillion bailout without any Republican support.

Democrats have long pushed for an increase in the federal minimum wage. Biden has proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from before the election until after he became president, but he has not explained how the move would affect small businesses that are already struggling to pay their employees. Other Democrats, including Sanders, are pushing to raise the minimum wage to $23 per hour. Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has fallen at $7.25 an hour.

Ernst said after the vote, “Tonight, I have the entire Senate, Democrats and Republicans, agreeing that the federal minimum wage must not be raised to $15 an hour during a global (Chinese Communist virus , Wuhan pneumonia) pandemic , which would kill (American) jobs and destroy small businesses.”

The amendment passed by the Senate on a voice vote Thursday would throw a major hurdle in the way of efforts by Biden and Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress to raise the minimum wage, while Republicans and economists are long warning that arbitrary minimum wage hikes during the pandemic would further kill the amount of jobs, especially entry-level jobs that are vital for young people.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce specifically opposed raising the minimum wage when it called for a bipartisan compromise on Biden’s $1.9 trillion proposal.