Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the new chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, said Wednesday that he would introduce legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double its current rate of $7.25. The legislation would also index the new rate to inflation and gradually phase out the exception for tipped workers.
“There is no place in America where someone working full time & making the $7.25 federal minimum wage can make ends meet,” Scott said in a tweet Wednesday. “Today, House & Senate Democrats are introducing the #RaiseTheWage Act to give roughly 40 million workers a raise.”
The legislation is set to be officially unveiled later Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has previously said she backs a $15 rate and will make passing legislation on it a priority.
Democrats have long tried to raise the minimum wage but previously sought more marginal increases. Former President Barack Obama pushed for an increase to just $10.10 in 2015. Hillary Clinton called for an increase to $12 during her 2016 presidential bid.
At the time, Democrats argued that would boost take-home pay for workers without putting too much strain on businesses. Privately, they worried higher levels would damage the economy. “[Y]ou will get a fair number of liberal economists who will say it will lose jobs,” Clinton campaign adviser Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, told Clinton’s campaign in a leaked April 2015 email.
State-level efforts in California, New York, and elsewhere to raise their minimum wages to $15 have since pushed Democrats to aim higher. They see it as an key issue they can use to separate themselves from congressional Republicans, who have traditionally opposed increases.
Conservative groups argue that the increase would still be damaging to the broader economy. “In reality, a higher minimum wage forces the government to create winners and losers, increasing wages for some at the cost of fewer jobs for others,” said the Employment Policies Institute in a statement.
