House $15 Minimum Wage Bill Moves to Floor Vote
The House Education and Labor committee March 6 advanced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour for a full chamber vote.
The panel approved the Raise the Wage Act (H.R. 582, S.150) along party lines. The bill, introduced by committee chairman Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), would gradually raise the current $7.25-an-hour federal wage floor to $15 by 2024. It would also erase separate minimums for tipped and other workers.
“After nearly 10 years with no increase in the federal minimum wage, minimum wage workers have suffered a 17 percent pay cut due to inflation,” Scott said prior to the committee’s vote.
Democrats will need to drum up bipartisanship support for it clear the Republican-controlled Senate.
Republicans criticized the bill, saying it should be up to the states and companies to determine a wage floor. An across-the-board $15 wage would lead to job losses in parts of the nation, said the committee’s ranking member, Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).
“Going from a $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage to a $15-an-hour minimum wage is, at best, a foolish policy proposal,” Foxx said. “At worst, it’s an intentionally dishonest political stunt that promises bigger paychecks to hardworking Americans when in reality it would result in significant job losses for millions of hourly workers around the country.”
Her comments were echoed by other Republicans like Rep. Rick Allen (Ga.) who said the matter shouldn’t be decided by Congress.
“I believe that states, localities, and the business community are in the best position to work together to address wage issues within their state,” he said.
Some blue states are considering or have already passed laws to set a $15 hourly wage floor. California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, as well as the District of Columbia, have passed $15 minimum wage legislation. States including Maryland and Pennsylvania are weighing efforts to raise the wage floor to that level.
A total of 29 states and Washington, D.C., have minimum wages higher than the federal $7.25.
Small Business Amendment Fails
The Democratic-led committee rejected all seven amendments proposed by Republicans, including one that would have exempted small businesses from the $15 hourly wage mandate. Businesses with fewer than 10 employees or annual gross sales of less than $1 million would have been classified as small employers.
“If we want Main Street to thrive, significantly increasing the cost of doing business is not the way to do it,” Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) said as he presented the amendment. “This amendment recognizes the damage of such a command and control bill, which ignores free markets, states rights, historical data and everyday Main Street feedback.”
All committee Democrats except for Rep. Haley Stevens (Mich.) voted against the amendment.
Small businesses have been vocal critics of the $15 hourly minimum wage. Lobbyists have told Bloomberg Law that carve outs for small businesses would be key to helping pass a federal mandate.
Following the vote, Scott told Bloomberg Law he’s confident the committee-approved legislation will pass the House floor vote without such carve outs. He said he has seen bipartisanship on the issue, noting that voters in red states like Missouri last year said yes to raising the state’s wage floor.
“One thing that surprises me is there is no Republican alternative,” Scott said. “Twelve dollars passed in Arkansas and Missouri.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Tyrone Richardson in Washington at trichardson@bloomberglaw.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Phil Kushin at pkushin@bloomberglaw.com; Chris Opfer at copfer@bloomberglaw.com
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