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$15 Minimum Wage

  • May 2, 2021
  • 4 min read


The Effort for a $15 Minimum


The current minimum wage in the United States sits at $7.25 an hour. Over the years, progressive Democrats have introduced different Acts and Bills in an attempt to increase the minimum wage. According to the Pew Research Center, about two-thirds, or 67%, of Americans are in favor of raising the minimum wage to $15 and 41% are strongly in favor of this change. With the Democratic party taking control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, it was extremely probable that Democrats would push for this change. However, the filibuster in the Senate proved to be an obstacle to voting on a minimum wage bill because the 50 non-Republicans were not able to secure the 60 votes they needed for such a Bill.


$1.9 Trillion COVID Relief Bill/American Rescue Plan


Due to this obstacle, the Democrats were left with very few options to get past the filibuster. At first, they tried including the $15 minimum wage inside of the COVID Relief Bill. Because the COVID Relief Bill is such an important piece of legislation, the Senate and Presiding Officer can bypass the filibuster cloture rule by changing the Senate rules with a simple majority vote. Since the COVID Relief Bill was able to bypass the filibuster, this was the ideal bill to include the $15 minimum wage. This meant that the section about the minimum wage would be able to bypass the filibuster as well. On March 1st, 2020, Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he would introduce an amendment to the COVID Relief Bill to include a $15 minimum wage. However, this amendment faced much opposition within the Senate.


Opposition


Senate Parliamentarian- The first obstacle to the introduction of a $15 minimum wage was the Senate Parliamentarian. The Senate Parliamentarian is a non-elected individual who is hired by the Senate to advise the Presiding Officer on Senate procedures and rules. At the beginning of March, the Senate Parliamentarian decided that the $15 minimum wage could not be included in the COVID bill because of the Byrd Rule. The Byrd Rule prohibits any such inclusions inside a budget bill that are extraneous and are not necessary to the purpose of the bill. However, the Democrats surpassed this obstacle by having their Presiding Officer ignore the advice of the Parliamentarian (which is within the authority of the Presiding Officer).

Republican Party- The Republicans in the Senate are the most obvious obstacle hindering the minimum wage efforts. The Republicans have long opposed the Progressives' efforts to raise the federal minimum wage due to conservative values. Republicans have claimed opposition to the $15 minimum wage since they are worried about the reactions of large business owners and want to continue the existing system of allowing states to establish their own minimum wages. Democrats planned to get over this obstacle by having Vice President Kamala Harris vote to break a tie in the Senate as all 50 Republican Senators were expected to vote against the $15 minimum wage section as well as the entire COVID Relief Bill.

Conservative Democrats- The one obstacle that Progressive Democrats could not move past was the Conservative senators of their own party. Before the introduction of the minimum wage amendment to the Senate, the Conservative Democratic senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), both publicly announced their opposition to the amendment. This divide between Progressives and Conservatives within the Democratic party proved to be the undoing of the $15 minimum wage amendment. On March 5th, 2021, the Senate voted 42-58 against the inclusion of the $15 minimum wage in the COVID Relief Bill with all 50 Republicans and 8 Conservative Democrats in the majority. Democrats also barely passed the COVID Relief Bill as VP Harris broke the tie and the resultant votes were at 51-50.


Future of the Minimum Wage


The immediate progress of raising the minimum wage was stopped, but Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) has made promises about continuing the Progressive fight towards raising the federal minimum wage to help those who do not make a livable wage. If the Democrats wish to use their power within the White House to raise the minimum wage, they will have to acquire the support of Conservative Democrats. Republicans will probably continue to oppose this measure. If Congress continues to make the same progressive jumps in membership that it did in the 2018 and 2020 elections, then it seems that raising the federal minimum wage will be inevitable.


How You Can Help?


The best way to help achieve whatever goal you want to see with the minimum wage is to contact your Congressional Representatives. If you want Democrats to pass a $15 minimum wage, then contact your Senators, especially if you live in a conservative state like Arizona or West Virginia. If you wish to see a different outcome for the minimum wage, then be vocal on social media and write letters expressing your concerns to your Senators and Representatives. Continue to push for change through activism if you cannot bring about change through other ways like voting.


Edited by Simran "Sam" Luthiya


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