‘Denying women a minimum wage is sexist’

A thumbs-down gesture by a US senator sparked a debate about feminism.

Senator Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Made a negative motion on Friday when she voted against a clause in President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 aid package that would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.

Sinema’s action provoked a storm of reactions from lawmakers who considered the gesture irreverent or an expression of joy in reaction to the reduction in wage increases. His refusal has angered other Democrats and progressives, who argue that a minimal amendment would lift millions of Americans out of poverty and reduce annual government spending.

Sinema responded that the reaction to the gesture in the Senate Chamber was “sexist”, said his spokesman HuffPost, arguing that it should not be considered by a different standard when male senators also use body language as a form of expression.

“Comments about a senator’s body language, clothing or physical behavior do not belong to a serious medium,” said the senator’s spokesman.

Sinema voted with Republicans and seven Democratic colleagues against the amendment to the American Rescue Plan, which the Senate passed on Saturday morning without a minimum wage.

“No one who works full time should live in poverty,” said Sinema in a statement on Friday, adding that the Senate should “hold an open debate” about raising the “separate” minimum wage from the Rescue Plan discussion. American.

The increase for low-income workers had to be considered as an amendment to the budgetary reconciliation project, after the Senate parliamentarian decided that the minimum wage was a “foreign issue” to the COVID-19 relief package.

“Denying women a minimum wage is sexist,” Ohio Democratic Congressional candidate Nina Turner replied in a tweet on Friday night.

Turner’s answer brings to light how the federal minimum wage is as much a feminist issue as it is to ridicule a woman’s body language.

The increase in the minimum wage would be a direct benefit for 19 million women, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP). The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women, forcing them to choose between paid work and unpaid domestic work, such as home schooling children.

Increasingly, women are forced to leave the workforce as a result of that choice, according to a report released on Thursday by the International Monetary Fund.

The CAP argues that a $ 15 minimum wage would increase women in the workforce. Twenty-three percent of women who would receive a raise are black and Latino women who have been significantly affected by the pandemic, taking up a large share of low-paying jobs that pay $ 7.25 an hour or more. This would translate into an annual increase of $ 3,700 in salaries for black and Latino women and an average of $ 3,500 for women.

If Congress had approved the amendment, 1 in 4 women would have received a raise. Seven million women who are essential workers would also experience a salary increase.

Sinema’s home state could also have seen the benefits. According to the US Census Bureau, blacks and Latinos make up 5 and 31 percent of Arizona’s population, respectively. Supporters also pointed out on social media that the amendment would increase 839,000 people in Arizona, according to the Brookings Institution, and shared a 2014 Twitter post by Sinema in which she expressed that raising the minimum wage was “obvious”.

Here are the numbers of people earning less than $ 15 an hour in states from senators who voted not to increase, starting in 2019:

Movie Rating: 839K
Manchin: 229K
Carper: 106K
Coons: 106K
Hassan: 146K
Shaheen: 146K
King: 158K
Tester: 126K

From this study, I reported at: https: //t.co/JTq3SNVnuR

– Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) March 5, 2021

Newsweek contacted Sinema for comment.