Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Eight Democratic senators joined Republicans in opposing a bill that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over five years. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had previously introduced the proposal.
Several Senate Democrats: Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia; Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana; Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona; Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire Hassan (D), New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D), Delaware Democratic Senator Tom Carper (D), Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons (D), and Vermont Democratic Senator Angus King (D). have joined all Senate Republicans in opposing the proposal. Coons and Carper are considered two close allies of President Joe Biden (D-Del.). Biden is a former senator from Delaware.
The final vote against the bill was 42 to 58, well below the 60 votes needed to defeat the Senate lawmakers’ decision. Senate lawmakers had previously decided that the minimum wage increase could not be included in the broader COVID-19 (Chinese Communist Virus) bailout bill.
Sinema tweeted that she supports raising the minimum wage, which was last raised more than a decade ago, because she knows “what it’s like to work and meet your Family‘s most basic needs while facing difficult choices.
But she also explained on Twitter that “Senators from both parties have expressed support for raising the federal minimum wage, and the Senate should hold a public debate and amendment process on raising the minimum wage, separate from the COVID-focused reconciliation bill.”
Manchin, perhaps the most centrist Democrat in the Senate, previously said in an interview with The Hill that he does not support a plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He also said he was willing to raise the minimum wage to a “responsible and reasonable level. In his Home state of West Virginia, for example, he suggested that the minimum wage should be $11 per hour, taking Inflation into account.
The move drew condemnation from progressive Democrats and Sanders himself. Some have called for the eight senators to be removed from the primary.
The budget committee chairman, a Vermont senator, asked on the Senate floor, “Are you on the side of working Americans who desperately need a pay raise? Or are you on the side of the rich and powerful who will continue to exploit their workers and pay low wages?” “It doesn’t get more incomprehensible than that.”
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, is running for the 2022 Senate seat left by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA). In response, he said, “Every senator who voted against the $15 minimum wage today should be forced to go live on $7.25 an hour so that they can prove to all of us that it’s possible.” He was referring to the current $7.25 federal minimum wage.
Republicans have said the proposal would be impossible to implement in some areas and could result in significant job losses.
Toomey expressed his concerns about the White House proposal in January: “If the federal government mandates a universal $15 minimum wage, many low-income Americans will lose the jobs they have now and will have fewer opportunities to find work in the future.”
With Congress quickly passing an economic stimulus bill, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday (March 5) that U.S. employment surged in February, adding 379,000 jobs, well above many economists’ expectations.
The U.S. unemployment rate last month, while still high at 6.2 percent, was down from 6.3 percent in January.
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declared that Washington must take aggressive action as the Epidemic has caused millions of people to lose their jobs and people are still having trouble paying their rent.
Sometimes macro statistics can be an obstacle,” he said. People at the top end (of the U.S.) are doing well … but there are a lot of other people who are struggling.”
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