With millions around the country calling for a $15 minimum wage, small business owners fear their businesses will be crippled while minimum wage workers have hope for better days ahead.
Democrats across the party's ideological spectrum have mostly been unified on the need to pass to President Biden's nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, but progressives are threatening to withhold support if the measure doesn't include a long-sought minimum wage increase.
Because Democrats are using a procedural tool called reconciliation to pass the aid package with a simple majority, allowing them to bypass the 60-vote filibuster, they have to abide by the so-called "Byrd rule," which mandates that any provision passed via reconciliation have a direct impact on the budget.
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The Senate parliamentarian heard arguments on Wednesday from Democratic and Republican staff on whether raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 is allowed under chamber rules. It's unclear when a decision will come, although it's expected soon.
If Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough issues a favorable ruling allowing the inclusion of a higher federal wage in the relief package, but Democrats voluntarily drop it from the final bill, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., suggested that she may withdraw her support for the proposal.
"There’s a scenario, where if our party is voluntarily trying to strip this provision, where we take a stand against it," Ocasio-Cortez told Politico. The progressive firebrand said she would still support the relief package if the parliamentarian is the one who takes out the minimum wage increase.
Other progressive lawmakers said the White House should overrule the parliamentarian if she says the minimum-wage increase can’t be part of the bill.
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., argued during an interview on MSNBC this week that the parliamentarian issues an "advisory opinion," but that whether to incorporate that opinion "is up to the chair of the Senate." Asked whether Democrats should reject the parliamentarian's ruling if she says the wage hike can't be included, Jayapal said: "I personally do."
"It's a small technicality, but I do think we've got to use every tool in our toolbox here," she said. "Whether it is reconciliation, whether it is, you know, ultimately reforming the filibuster. We're going to need to deliver on our promise to raise the wage for 27 million Americans."
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., echoed that sentiment in a tweet on Wednesday, saying he thinks the parliamentarian's ruling could be disregarded.
"The Constitution gives the Vice President the power to decide whether the $15 minimum wage can pass through reconciliation," Khanna said. "The parliamentarian’s opinion is advisory, which VPs have disregarded before. Do not let anyone tell you that we do not have the power to pass $15 wage."
White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Wednesday that the Biden administration does not plan to attempt to overrule the Senate parliamentarian if she decides against them.
"We're all waiting on bated breath for a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian," he told MSNBC.
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Even if the parliamentarian determines that a minimum wage increase doesn't violate the Byrd rule, Democrats still face an uphill battle in the Senate: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, two of the party's more moderate members, have signaled they do not support increasing the pay floor as part of a broader COVID-19 relief effort.
The federal minimum wage has not increased in more than a decade, although a growing number of states have voted to adopt their own wage increases. There are 29 states with wages above the federal minimum wage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. At $14 an hour, California currently has the highest minimum wage in the nation.
Raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2025 would cost the economy about 1.4 million jobs and would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, according to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
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February 25, 2021 at 08:08PM
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Progressives threaten support for COVID-19 relief package if Dems drop $15 minimum wage hike - Fox Business
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