Puerto Rico raised its minimum wage for the first time in over a decade. But the high cost of living is a challenge that keeps many families in poverty.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/puerto-ricos-new-minimum-wage-not-enough-starting-point-rcna2183
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Nicole Acevedo
CVS upping its base pay to $15 an hour is a milestone because it employs 300,000 people and puts pressure on other small-store retailers (such as Walgreens-Boots) to follow suit. A scan of the top 10 retailers suggests that among big-box employers, only Home Depot and Lowes have failed to promise at least $15 an hour to workers, though Walmart’s promise seems to have a big asterisk by it. — Read the rest
Source: https://boingboing.net/2021/08/05/cvs-will-raise-minimum-wage-to-15.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cvs-will-raise-minimum-wage-to-15
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rob Beschizza
If companies raised pay high enough, then maybe they wouldn’t complain about labor shortages that have forced them to forgo sales. But there seems to be a limit to how much a company is willing to pay, despite what seems like a clear opportunity to maximize the top line.
Why it matters: Companies have been scrambling to staff up amid a rapid economic recovery. Employers across industries have been raising wages in their efforts to be competitive.
What they’re saying: Increasing wages is essentially a wager that today’s demand will persist and justify higher labor costs in the years to come. And companies don’t want to be in a position to have to reverse that decision.
And employers can’t offer higher pay to just the new people.
Zoom out: There’s a wide array of logistical reasons a company may have job openings that it’s putting off filling, Wells Fargo economist Shannon Seery tells Axios.
The bottom line: While there appears to be a disconnect between companies complaining about labor shortages and what they’re doing about pay, the bias in the labor market continues to favor workers and their wages.
Source: https://www.axios.com/wages-labor-shortages-why-b928f21b-f20a-4fbc-b556-05323504fb99.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Sam Ro
Minimum wage workers in various parts of the country got a pay increase Thursday, the first day of the new fiscal year for most state and local governments.The pay raises come just months after C…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/561360-these-cities-and-states-just-raised-their-minimum-wage
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jackson Walker
Johns Hopkins University on Thursday announced plans to increase the minimum wage at the school and health system to $15 an hour.The boost, according to a …
Source: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/552121-johns-hopkins-increasing-minimum-wage-to-15
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Mychael Schnell
Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are teaming up on a bill to increase the minimum wage.Romney declined to provide details on the proposal, though he suggested that he and Sinema had largely r…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/548246-romney-sinema-teaming-up-on-proposal-to-raise-minimum-wage
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
Jacinda Ardern says the changes to wages and benefits will help support the most vulnerable
New Zealand is raising its minimum wage to $20 an hour and increasing the top tax rate for the country’s highest earners to 39%.
The changes will be rolled out on Thursday, alongside small increases to unemployment and sickness benefits. The government estimates the minimum wage increase – a rise of $1.14 per hour – will affect up to 175,500 workers, and increase wages across the economy by $216m.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/31/new-zealand-raises-minimum-wage-and-increases-taxes-on-the-rich
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Tess McClure in Auckland
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain met quietly with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman and other progressive lawmakers this week to discuss the filibuster, minimum wage and other issues, people familiar with the matter told Axios.
Why it matters: The private, in-person meeting demonstrates the White House’s commitment to staying in close contact with some of the House’s most outspoken members, even if the parties don’t always share the same strategy to achieve common goals.
The intrigue: Last week, Klain met with the official leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including the chair, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Calif.).
The big picture: The existence of a backchannel between the White House and the party’s most prominent progressive could help the president in his next big legislative push: asking Congress to spend an additional $3 trillion on infrastructure and healthcare.
Source: https://www.axios.com/scoop-aocs-private-audience-with-ron-klain-03209a18-3f23-4e0a-9995-710940a0a705.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Kadia Goba
Moderate Senate Democrats are pushing their leaders for a more modest approach to the party’s signature minimum wage hike, arguing for a compromise that can attract broader support after the defeat of a $15 hourly wage proposal.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer convened a meeting on the topic Tuesday afternoon that includes the eight Democratic caucus members who opposed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) $15 hourly wage plan earlier this month. Several of those members opposed that proposal because it eliminates the tipped wage, a lower minimum wage for restaurant workers and other employees who receive gratuities.
It’s the first time Schumer held an in-person meeting with a disparate group of senators on an issue that electrifies his party’s base but divides his caucus. Sanders requested the meeting, a Democratic aide said.
Given the differences between Sanders and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on the issue, attendees expected a collision between the uncompromising liberal wing of the party and the centrist wing that recently voted down one of the party’s longtime goals. But the meeting was promising, Democrats said. Manchin described it as a “wonderful conversation, and I don’t think anyone will talk to you, it was so good.”
In the meeting, Manchin seemed steadfast about his support for an increase to $11 an hour, according to one attendee. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) suggested that if the wage was raised to $11 now and more aggressively indexed to inflation, it wouldn’t be far off from Sanders’s goal of $15 an hour by 2024.
And several senators expressed opposition to completely eliminating the tipped wage.
“I’ve long supported an increase in the minimum wage. I’ve generally been supportive of a $12 increase, but I was very concerned that in the midst of this pandemic this would have an impact, particularly on the restaurant business,” said incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) before the huddle. “I want to find a way we can support workers that need an increase in the minimum wage.”
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who opposed Sanders’ proposal, said servers are telling him: “Please don’t screw this up.” King, who caucuses with Democrats, suggested that his state’s tipped-wage solution could be a guidepost for Congress: Maine raised its tipped wage to half its general minimum wage of $12.15, making the adjustment easier for restaurants that have to make up the difference for certain workers.
King also said on Tuesday morning that his caucus should consider a compromise approach after the Senate parliamentarian ruled a minimum wage increase out of order in the party’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. That means the bill is subject to a 60-vote threshold under Senate rules.
“I’ve taken immense grief [for my vote]. And I’m in favor of raising the minimum wage,” said King, who recalled fruitlessly pushing a compromise when Democrats last had the Senate majority.
A compromise is “better than nothing,” he added. “And nothing is what we got eight years ago … it’s going to take 60 votes. So it’s going to require compromise.”
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senate HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) joined Sanders at the Tuesday afternoon meeting with Schumer.
Skeptics of Sanders’ proposal view a lower rate that can attract Republican support and preserve some tipped wage — which is currently set at $2.13 — as the only option for moving forward. Employees whose tips amount to less than the federal minimum wage are paid the difference by their employers. That system allows some servers at high-end restaurants, for example, to make significantly more than the minimum wage.
“One of my big concerns is around the tipped wage,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). “In the middle of the pandemic it’s not the time to totally change the model that restaurants have used for a very long time.”
As minimum wage talks continue, some Senate Republicans have offered an increase to $10 an hour that would then be indexed to inflation and include stricter vetting of employees’ immigration backgrounds. Many Democrats have dismissed that effort as less than serious.
“The Republicans want $10. $11 gets you above the poverty guidelines. And tipped wages go up to 50 percent of poverty guidelines,” Manchin said on Tuesday morning, adding that he is talking to the National Restaurant Association about the issue. “I can’t see why that wouldn’t be a good route for everybody.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/23/democrats-moderates-minimum-wage-477651
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine
Biden’s $1.9tn relief package struggles through Senate but majority leaders vows passage ‘however long it takes’
A fiery speech and last-ditch effort by Bernie Sanders to secure a place for a federal minimum wage hike in the $1.9tn coronavirus relief package appeared as good as doomed on Friday, following a day that saw the flagship legislation hit grinding delays in the Senate.
Senate leaders and moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin struck a deal late on Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a nine-hour logjam.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/05/us-coronavirus-relief-package-congress-senate-biden-sanders
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Lauren Gambino and Joan E Greve in Washington and agencies
The Senate was more than two hours into a vote on Friday afternoon as Jon Tester and several fellow Democrats pleaded with Joe Manchin.
The voluble West Virginian was talking with his colleagues, but even after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) implored him to move forward on a compromise approach to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid aid bill, she and Tester weren’t getting anywhere with Manchin. Tester didn’t understand quite where Manchin was coming from as he resisted what Democratic leaders had already marketed as a popular compromise.
“I was trying to get Joe to work with Chuck [Schumer] to move this process forward,” Tester said. Asked on Friday evening what Manchin’s issue was, the Montanan said: “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
Manchin’s outsized influence has cast its shadow over the Senate since the day the Democrats captured their scant 50-50 majority. He’s already derailed a Cabinet nominee and led the opposition to a federal $15 minimum wage even as his party’s leaders pushed for it. But Friday was Manchin’s most quintessential moment: The centrist Democrat paralyzed the entire Senate for more than 10 hours and threatened to side with Republicans seeking to cut weeks of unemployment benefits.
In the end, it took a direct call from President Biden, a meeting with Schumer and significant concessions to get Manchin on board. He trimmed several weeks of unemployment benefits off of Sen. Tom Carper’s (D-Del.) compromise amendment from earlier in the day and added a $150,000 cap to the proposal’s tax deduction for up to $10,200 in unemployment benefits.
Manchin had hinted earlier in the week that he would exert his pull over the relief debate. In an interview, he suggested that by June or July the economy should be opening up as vaccines become more widespread and the coronavirus recedes. And he worried about paying people more than $1,000 extra a month to stay home.
“We want people to get back to work. We’re gonna have a hard time getting people ready to go back in to keep the economy going,” he said on Tuesday. “It’d be awful for the doors to open up and there’s no one working. … That’s the problem.”
The episode perplexed Democrats, who said Manchin threatened what they understood to be a universally acceptable compromise extending unemployment payments through September and making those benefits nontaxable. That earlier deal also trimmed the weekly benefit from $400 to $300, as Manchin had sought.
Manchin’s dug-in Friday also exposed a rare rift between him and his moderate Arizona ally. Unlike Manchin, Sinema wanted to extend the unemployment benefits past August and raised the issue on a private caucus call this week, according to a source on the call. She also could be heard on the floor, alongside Tester, trying to convince Manchin to go along with Carper’s proposal.
As a roll-call vote on the minimum wage stayed open and the hours ticked by, Manchin flirted with siding with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and his proposal to axe the unemployment bonus payments in July. Manchin had been talking to the Ohio Republican for more than a week and had previously committed to his amendment, according to sources familiar with the matter. Portman and Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) worked to get Manchin’s support while Republicans urged him to stand strong.
Portman spoke with Manchin and Sinema several times on Friday, with Manchin then going back to Democrats and asking for concessions, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
Though Manchin’s brand is bipartisanship, his eleventh-hour dalliance with the GOP may ding his credibility across the aisle.
“To give in at this point would raise all sorts of questions. What’d they give you? Why’d you cave? There’s no way, at this point, this looks good,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) shortly before Manchin and his party reached a deal.
Still, as Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) put it, Manchin is “always comfortable the way he is. I don’t worry about him. He’ll do what Joe thinks is right.”
But for Democrats, their 50th vote siding with Republicans was not a palatable option. Manchin’s party was worried about getting to final passage “without doing major injury to the bill,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
Not to mention that Portman’s change “is not a good thing in the context of the congressional schedule,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), referring to making extra benefits expire in July.
“That would not be good for people,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) of the prospect of Manchin siding with Republicans. “He has a right to it. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of us wouldn’t be frustrated about it.”
There were signs earlier in the week that moderate Democrats would have an issue with the Covid bill’s extra unemployment insurance benefits. Several of them held a call with Biden on Monday to talk about paring back some of the bill’s economic relief. Carper and Manchin sought to change the $400 weekly payment approved by the House to $300, where it currently stands, while Manchin was already pressing to phase out the bill’s $1,400 stimulus checks completely to people making $80,000 a year.
But Manchin’s dramatic play on Friday perplexed even his West Virginia counterpart, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Their state’s governor had been pushing Congress to go bigger, not smaller.
“I have no idea what he’s doing, to be quite frank,” she said. “Maybe you can tell me.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/05/manchin-biden-covid-aid-plan-473963
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine
Just a few days ago, Democrats were preparing to leave Republicans behind on a minimum wage hike. Now the GOP might be their only shot at raising the wage this Congress.
The ruling against including a $15 minimum wage in this month’s coronavirus relief bill by the Senate parliamentarian, its official rules referee, dealt a major blow to Democrats and President Joe Biden’s agenda. But that decision was also clarifying: With Democrats holding only 50 Senate seats and divided over gutting the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer probably needs 10 Republicans now on any successful deal to raise the minimum wage.
Democrats have batted away the GOP proposal to raise the wage to $10 an hour and enact stricter immigration vetting requirements for employers. But as Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), put it: “The nice thing about that is, it helped define the floor, from which we can only imagine a pathway up.”
“It is a more durable solution if it’s 60 votes,” Coons said on Monday after a couple of “very preliminary” weekend discussions with Republicans on raising the wage.
Republicans “realize it’s got to be raised,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). “There are three principled pieces: The number, the phase-in and the tipped wage. Those are the three things we should work on. We ought to try and have some discussions. That’s the way you’re supposed to legislate.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) proposal would raise the wage to $15 in steps by 2025. It does not have unanimous support among Senate Democrats, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has suggested a compromise number of $11. But Sanders is insisting that Democrats try to eliminate the filibuster to pass the minimum wage hike and ruled out going lower than $15 hourly, which he said “is a compromise already.”
Several Republicans said on Monday they’d be open to going higher than the $10-an-hour GOP bill helmed by Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Romney said Monday he has been discussing a possible path forward with Democrats on the wage hike and suggested working with the minority was the most likely path.
“I don’t understand this all-or-nothing approach. Going from $7.25 to 10 dollars an hour … is a substantial and long overdue increase. So why would the progressives to whom Chuck is clearly listening be opposed to that?” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) of Schumer. “It sounds like Chuck wants an issue, not a solution.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he’s studying a proposal from Waffle House that would phase in a wage increase to $15 over six or seven years. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who supports the Cotton-Romney proposal, said she’s open to going above $10 but that Democrats “have to realize it’ll have to be a compromise figure.”
The GOP’s proposal for stricter enforcement of the immigration system known as E-verify could prove to be a sticking point, however. That program confirms employment eligibility for workers, but some Democrats would be wary of discussing any change that could target undocumented workers as a condition for a smaller minimum wage bump.
Rather than deal with the GOP, Democrats could also try and wait for another shot at raising the wage using the protections of budget reconciliation, a tool that allows them to evade the Senate’s supermajority requirement but has arcane rules governing its usage. To make that happen, they’d have to present the parliamentarian with a different argument after trying in vain to force a wage increase into an emergency Covid relief bill.
Senate Democrats have been campaigning on raising the wage since 2014, and some individual senators have been pushing for far longer. The party could be at risk of getting nothing unless it engages with Republicans. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said it’s most likely the Democrats will have to compromise if they want to raise the federal wage above the current, stagnant $7.25 level that last rose in 2009.
“We certainly need enough votes to overcome a filibuster, and that requires 10 more than we have,” Durbin said. “I think that’s the only recourse.”
But some Democrats aren’t ready to make any deal with the other party. Progressives are saying the only way forward is to gut the filibuster and kill its 60-vote requirement on legislation — or at least overrule the parliamentarian’s advice to exclude the wage increase from the bill. Both those options are endorsed by Sanders yet currently lack the votes to advance given opposition from Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she did not want to wait for either Republicans to get on board or for a second reconciliation bill. Of the GOP’s current bid on the minimum wage, she retorted: “That’s just not a serious proposal. And doesn’t work.” She said getting rid of the filibuster is the answer to most of the party’s procedural problems.
Democrats have one more option on the wage hike: wait. They could also gamble on picking up Senate seats in 2022 to ease their path to gutting the filibuster, but that would stall progress on the issue for at least two years. And Republicans say there’s a deal to be had — if Democrats are willing to engage.
“We’ve got some people that are interested in it,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune. “The $15 is a non-starter. And I don’t think we have anybody on our side [for that], and there’s some Democrats that are going to be opposed to that too.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/01/minimum-wage-gop-democrats-senate-472149
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Friday announced a plan to tax big companies that don’t pay their workers at least $15 per hour, an alternative minimum wage approach also put forth by by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Berni…
Source: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/540673-hawley-backs-sanders-style-plan-b-on-15-minimum-wage
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Niv Elis
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Friday announced Democrats’ “Plan B” to raise the minimum wage after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that an earlier proposal from House Democrats to raise the fede…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/540668-plan-b-for-15-minimum-wage-unveiled
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Alexander Bolton
A Senate official’s ruling against Democrats’ $15 minimum wage hike in the next coronavirus bill has revived calls to end the Senate filibuster. Democr…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/540641-minimum-wage-setback-revives-calls-to-nix-senate-filibuster
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordan Williams
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slammed the Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s Thursday ruling against including a $15 an hour federal minimum wag…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/540636-sanders-slams-parliamentarian-decision-on-minimum-wage
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Cameron Jenkins
Will a million dollars get you into the 1% club? Not in most countries? Two million will get you into several European and Asian countries. If you want to be a one-percenter in the United States, you’ll need at least $4.4 million. — Read the rest
Source: https://boingboing.net/2021/02/24/how-rich-do-you-have-to-be-to-make-it-into-the-1-percent.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Mark Frauenfelder
Senate Democrats made their final pitch on Wednesday to the official who will decide whether language to increase the minimum wage can be included in their coronavirus relief bill.Staffers met…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/540310-senate-democrats-make-final-pitch-for-including-wage-hike-in-coronavirus-bill
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordain Carney
Democrats are scrambling to piece together a backup plan that could save their minimum wage hike from getting tossed out of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package and win over moderates wary of the proposal.
The budget tool that Democrats are using to steer Biden’s plan through Congress without GOP support, known as reconciliation, is laden with thorny restrictions waiting to ensnare the $15 minimum wage boost they’ve added to the next tranche of coronavirus relief. The wage increase is also running into strong headwinds from two influential Senate Democratic centrists, Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who are both resistant to enacting the sweeping policy change through the powerful budget process.
The White House and Hill Democrats have been waiting to see how the Senate’s parliamentarian, its official adviser on procedural matters, opines on the wage increase. That ruling could happen as early as Tuesday, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide. In the meantime, Democrats are already weighing several options to try to save the wage hike from fully imploding and make it more palatable for moderates in their own party — whom congressional leaders need lockstep support from in order to muscle the Covid-19 aid package through the Senate with a simple majority vote before unemployment benefits expire for millions of Americans in mid-March.
“There are two issues going on right now — one is Byrd Rule problems, one is whip problems,” said House Budget Chair John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), referring in the first case to the procedural hurdle that could quash the wage hike in the Senate. “If Joe Manchin isn’t going to vote for it because of the minimum wage, I assume we have to take it out or compromise in a way that he would accept.”
Some Democrats are discussing the possibility of capping the increase at less than $15 an hour, to possibly $11 or $12, Yarmuth said. Such a move could satisfy wonky Byrd Rule restrictions that constrain the projected cost of the pandemic relief proposal outside of a 10-year budget window, he said.
Budget rules that allow the bill to pass the Senate without the threat of a filibuster essentially require that all pieces of the bigger package have a significant effect on federal spending, revenues and the debt within a decade. If the package increases deficits beyond that window, approval from the Senate parliamentarian can get problematic.
Manchin has previously said that an $11 minimum wage hike, adjusted for inflation, would make more sense for his home state of West Virginia. Sinema’s support for any wage hike would likely be harder to win, since she told POLITICO earlier this month that the increase is “not appropriate” as an add-on to the Covid-19 aid bill.
Notably, some Republicans have backed a wage bump, but with extra strings that would divide Democrats. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced last week that he’ll introduce a bill with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that would raise the minimum wage — although he didn’t specify a number — “while ensuring businesses cannot hire illegal immigrants.”
Progressives aren’t yet ready to ditch the $15 figure. Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his staff have repeatedly contended that the Congressional Budget Office has already produced ample evidence showing that the $15 increase satisfies budgetary rules within the 10-year window. Sanders aides note that raising the wage will produce a much bigger effect on the budget than oil drilling in the Arctic and the repeal of Obamacare health insurance mandate penalties — which were both previously allowed under the Senate’s arcane rules.
But to ensure that the $15 wage hike officially checks off all the right boxes, progressives have another idea. They’re pushing the possibility of a small business tax relief plan that could be paired with the minimum wage increase in order to alleviate any burdens on businesses required to increase their pay, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide.
Separately, Democrats are exploring other options from the Senate Finance Committee that could include closing “some loopholes that benefit the rich or large corporations,” the Democratic aide said.
Democrats “could certainly repeal” some tax provisions, including one added to last year’s pandemic relief measure, “that benefit wealthy real estate owners,” the aide added. “There are some other tax provisions that President Biden has supported that would raise more than enough money to cover both the 10-year window and out-year expenses with respect to the minimum wage.”
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) “is looking at various options to stay within our allocation and support small businesses,” said his spokesperson Ashley Schapitl, noting that he’s previously said “he’s doing all he can” to keep the minimum wage increase in the broader package.
A House Democratic aide, who described the issue as “a Senate math problem,” said additional revenue could also come from cutting one month off the expiration date for unemployment benefits that the House package would extend through August. House Democrats have already lopped a month off Biden’s original unemployment benefits extension, which he proposed to run through September, to offset the cost of pension aid that they included in the Covid-19 aid bill.
Schapitl said she hadn’t heard of any options involving unemployment insurance and raising the minimum wage, but declined to discuss any other specifics.
Biden has privately signaled to governors that the wage hike likely isn’t happening as part of his first Covid-19 aid measure. And while Democrats could technically overrule the parliamentarian on the issue, that’s unlikely to happen given that Biden is leaning heavily against the idea, POLITICO reported earlier this month.
Liberals, however, remain confident that the minimum wage boost will survive without any compromises — and they’re confident of a parliamentarian ruling in their favor.
“What Sen. Sanders is fighting for is a $15 minimum wage,” the senior Senate Democratic aide said. “Period. End of discussion.“
Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/22/democrats-minimum-wage-increase-plan-470860
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Caitlin Emma and Aaron Lorenzo
While Democrats are trying to find a way to get a $15 wage floor, Romney says his bill will “ensure businesses cannot hire illegal immigrants.”
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-senator-propose-minimum-wage-hike-coupled-immigration-enforcement-n1258015
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Dareh Gregorian and Julie Tsirkin
