Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he’s open to a minimum wage increase, which could pave the way for Congress to strike a deal to raise pay nationally.
“It’s true it hasn’t been raised in quite a while, and I think it’s worth discussing,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told reporters.
Republicans have long been opposed to a new wage hike. Congress last raised the minimum wage in 2007 with a phased-in plan that lifted the hourly rate to the current $7.25 an hour.
McConnell signaled that the GOP is ready to consider another boost, but neither McConnell nor the rest of the GOP supports the Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
DEMOCRATS READY TO PULL PLUG ON MINIMUM WAGE HIKE IN $1.9 TRILLION SPENDING BILL
Senate Democrats are poised to abandon a plan to try to force through a $15-per-hour wage mandate by including it in a $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending package that is poised to pass under special rules that prevent a Republican filibuster.
The Senate parliamentarian has ruled the minimum wage provision out of order, and Democrats lack the 51 votes within their party to override the ruling.
They are eager to find a path to passing a higher minimum wage under regular order, which would require 60 votes and the support of at least 10 Republicans.
With McConnell and other Republicans expressing support, there could be room for a compromise.
Two Republicans, Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Utah, pitched legislation last week that would raise the minimum wage to $10 over five years, with the increase beginning the year after the end of the pandemic.
Romney and Cotton argue that the Democratic plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 over the next four years would kill jobs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined that the $15 plan would cause the economy to shed 1.4 million jobs.
McConnell referenced Cotton and Romney’s bill on Tuesday.
“Sen. Cotton and Sen. Romney have been talking about a proposal for a minimum wage increase,” McConnell said.
A key Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, proposed his own compromise measure, which would raise the minimum wage to $11.
A compromise wage increase that is less than the $15 could have difficulty winning support from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
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Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont and a socialist who caucuses with the Democratic Party, is determined to win the $15 mandate, as are other Democrats, who say the amount is needed to provide people with a living wage. Rather than forcing a compromise with Republicans, Democrats said, it may push them to get rid of the filibuster so they can pass it with 51 votes.
