President-elect Joe Biden (C), along with Democratic US Senate candidates Jon Ossoff (L) and Rev. Raphael Warnock (R), greet supporters during a campaign rally the day before the second round in the parking lot. Centerparc Stadium in Atlanta.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
A $ 15 federal minimum wage approached after the second round of Tuesday’s election in Georgia, which seems likely to reverse Senate control and unify the government under the Democratic Party.
This wage increase would be more than double the current federal minimum wage, $ 7.25 an hour, but would likely face resistance from some Republicans and business groups.
Reverend Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, won the second round of the US Senate in Georgia on Tuesday, defeating Republican incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler, according to NBC News projections.
Democrat Jon Ossoff was leading Republican David Perdue, whose Senate seat expired on Sunday, in the other race in Georgia, which was too close to happen on Wednesday, according to NBC News.
Democratic victories in these contests would give Democrats control of the Senate, the House and the presidency. Congress is scheduled to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
“It’s absolutely a priority,” said Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate, of the Democrats passing legislation to establish a higher wage floor.
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Democrats, especially those in the liberal wing of the party, have long been pushing to raise the national minimum wage. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who normally votes with Democrats, said in a tweet on Tuesday that a $ 15 minimum wage was at stake in the second round of the Georgia election.
Proponents of raising the wage floor argue that the current standard does not provide a decent wage for Americans.
$ 15,080 per year
The federal minimum wage, currently $ 7.25 an hour has not been collected since 2009. That salary translates to $ 15,080 for a full-time worker, all year round, according to the National Employment Law Project.
Its value has decreased over time, since the salary does not increase with the cost of living.
Warnock and Ossoff are advocates of a $ 15 minimum wage, a point they have often emphasized in recent months. Biden promised to raise the wage floor to $ 15 an hour. The Chamber voted in favor in 2019.
Several states, cities and counties have recently raised their minimum wages, many to $ 15 or more. Forty cities and counties will have reached or exceeded a minimum wage of US $ 15 by the end of 2021, according to the National Labor Law Project.
“In the past 40 years, what we’ve seen in America is that workers’ wages have been crushed, while returns to shareholders have skyrocketed,” Ossoff said on the campaign trail.
A higher wage would disproportionately help black and Hispanic workers compared to other groups, such as whites and Asians, the survey shows. In December, Warnock called raising the minimum wage a “question of racial justice”.
The wage increase would come at a time when low-income workers and racial minorities were disproportionately affected by job losses and poverty during the Covid pandemic.
Opposition
However, passing this legislation is not a given. If both Democrats win in Georgia, the Senate will be split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to deliver a tiebreaker vote in favor of Democrats. This majority would be shy about the limit to avoid an obstruction.
The Republican-controlled Senate did not take the Wage Increase Act to a vote after the bill passed the House in 2019.
Some business groups, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation for Independent Business, have expressed opposition, saying that a national minimum wage of $ 15 would increase labor costs and lead employers to lay off workers.
Small businesses, which are less likely to have cash reserves or profit margins to absorb higher labor costs, would bear the brunt of these negative effects, NFIB said earlier this year.
Increasing wages gradually to $ 15 by 2025 would increase the wages of 17 million Americans, according to estimates published by the Congressional Budget Office. About 10 million more people earning just over $ 15 an hour may also experience a pay rise. But 1.3 million other workers would lose their jobs, according to the estimate.
The impetus seems to be with Democrats on this issue due to overwhelming public support, however, said Hamrick.
“The economy was able to bear the brunt of that increase back [in 2009]”Said Hamrick.” Obviously, that year was challenging for other reasons [due to the Great Recession], but nobody looks back in 2009 and says, ‘That was a big policy mistake.’ “