As Democrats try to chart a way to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour, Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced on Tuesday that he is working on a separate bill to increase the long stagnant minimum wage while “Ensures that companies cannot hire illegal immigrants. “
Romney said he is working on the bill with Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., And also includes a clause for the minimum wage to “automatically increase with inflation”.
Raising the minimum wage is a priority for the Biden government, but Democrats are divided on the best way forward.
Senator Bernie Sanders, head of the Senate Budget Committee and a longtime advocate of raising the minimum wage, is pushing for the measure to be included in the Covid-19 relief bill and passed through budgetary reconciliation, which would allow them avoid obstructing it and approve the measure without any republican support. Some Democrats fear that Senate rules will not allow the minimum wage increase to be used in reconciliation.
Romney said his project would raise the minimum wage “gradually”, but did not say how much or for how long.
“Congress has not raised the minimum wage in more than a decade, leaving many Americans behind. Our proposal gradually raises the minimum wage without costing jobs, setting it to automatically increase with inflation and requires employers to check the legal status of workers, “Romney wrote in a couple of tweets about the proposed legislation.
The Democratic-controlled House Education and Labor Committee earlier this month passed a Covid-19 relief bill that includes a $ 7.25 hourly wage increase to $ 15 in four years.
A report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found last week that a $ 15 salary would lift nearly 1 million people out of poverty in the next four years and increase the cumulative pay by $ 509 billion for workers who receive increases. But it would also increase debt by $ 54 billion and cost 1.4 million jobs.
President Joe Biden, who campaigned on a $ 15 salary and included him in his $ 1.9 trillion relief plan, said he did not think the salary increase would “survive” because of Senate rules, and launched a “separate negotiation” for a salary hike up to $ 15.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday refused to answer a question about whether the government would be open to expanding the amount of time to reach the $ 15 benchmark and said they “will leave the process unfold “in Congress.
“The president put an increase in the minimum wage in the initial package because he thinks it is important,” said Psaki. “And I am not going to negotiate what he would be open for and not the podium.”
