Eight Senate Democrats broke with the majority of their party on Friday to vote against a proposal by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to raise the minimum wage to $ 15, joining all 50 Republicans in the upper house to reject it. His defections put the measure on course for failure.
Sanders’ proposal challenged a decision by the Senate MP that a minimum wage increase could not be included in President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package.
At least seven of the eight Democrats, which includes an independent who argues with Democrats (Angus King), are millionaires. Collectively, these lawmakers are worth more than $ 43 million. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw billionaires add $ 1.3 trillion to their net assets, these wealthy lawmakers rejected the rise in American workers’ wages.
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Here are the eight Democratic senators who voted against raising the minimum wage to $ 15, along with their individual net worth based on the most recent information available (numbers come from Open Secrets, a nonprofit research group that monitors money in politics):
The federal minimum wage is currently $ 7.25 an hour. The last time it was increased was in 2009, although some individual states have increased the minimum payment above the federal rate.
There were 392,000 workers earning the federal minimum wage in 2019, while 1.2 million earned less, according to an April 2020 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now it seems likely that if Biden hopes to deliver on his campaign promise to raise the minimum wage to $ 15, he will have to open the matter through other legislation in the future.
Those who are opposed to raising the minimum wage – with Republican lawmakers among the most vehement opponents – often cite concerns that it will hurt business or jobs.
But many top economists poured cold water on these fears, while stressing how raising the minimum wage would be life-changing for many American workers. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, during her confirmation hearing in January, said an increase would have a “minimal or nothing” impact on jobs.
“Raising the federal minimum wage would lift millions out of poverty and serve as a huge additional pandemic stimulus for the entire economy,” said Chuck Collins, director of the Inequality and Common Good Program at the Institute for Political Studies. labor reporter Juliana Kaplan in February. “We have seen how many essential frontline workers are underpaid and more vulnerable. Raising their wages is morally right and economically smart.”