The American People Are Clear: Democrats Must Raise the Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour
By Senator Bernie Sanders
Since the first federal minimum wage was signed into law in 1938 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it has been raised by Congress 22 times under 12 different presidents. The last increase in the minimum wage was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007, which raised the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in 2009, where it still stands today. In no time in the history of this country has Congress gone so long without legislating an increase in the minimum wage. Since 2009, the minimum wage has lost 17 percent of its purchasing power to inflation. Since 1968, the minimum wage has lost a staggering 31 percent of its purchasing power. This is unacceptable. The American people need a raise, and they need it now.
Thanks to grassroots movements like the Fight for $15, a living minimum wage of $15 an hour is no longer a radical idea. In 2019, the House of Representatives passed the Raise the Wage Act, which would have gradually increased the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. Despite Kentucky being home to some of the poorest counties in the country, with a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, Mitch McConnell refused to bring the bill to the Senate floor.
Eight states and more than 40 cities have passed legislation to raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour. Just this past November in Florida, where Donald Trump won by more than 3 percent, voters passed a ballot measure to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. Since 1998, there have been 24 state ballot measures to increase the minimum wage. All of them have passed.
Now, with Democratic control of the House, the Senate, and the White House, it is long past time we keep our promise to the American people and finally raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage, and index it to wage growth to ensure that it keeps its purchasing power. The Raise the Wage Act would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in four years and close loopholes that allow millions of workers, including tipped workers and individuals with disabilities, to be paid well below the already shameful minimum wage.
We are living in unprecedented times. We face a public health and economic crisis not seen in history. While billionaires in the United States have increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion since the beginning of the pandemic, one in four adults report either they or someone in their household lost their jobs, and nearly one-third of all adults report that they or someone in their household has had their hours reduced or their pay cut. Hunger in the United States is at record levels. Essential workers are risking their lives every day to keep us fed, keep us safe, and care for us, too often for poverty wages. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage will lift millions out of poverty, pay heroic workers the wages they deserve, and stimulate our economy as we recover from the economic devastation of the coronavirus by putting money in the hands of working-class people to spend.
President Joe Biden won in November campaigning on a $15 an hour minimum wage, and he rightly included our legislation in his plan for coronavirus relief. The American people support it. A new Data for Progress poll found that 63 percent of voters support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including nearly half of Republicans. If Republican Senators will not listen to their constituents and join with Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold for major legislation in the Senate, then we must use all procedural tools available, including the budget reconciliation process, to raise the minimum wage with a 51-vote simple majority, just like Republicans did to pass trillions of dollars in tax breaks for wealthy individuals and profitable corporations.
Seventy three percent of voters want the tipped minimum wage loophole replaced so that all workers are paid at least the standard minimum wage, including both a majority of Democrats and Republicans.
If Democrats are to convince working Americans that we are on their side, we must deliver on our commitments and make the lives of working people materially better. If we do not, we face losing our slim majorities in the House and the Senate in 2022, and open ourselves to the possibility of another dangerous, populist demagogue like Donald Trump. It is not radical to say that the fate of small d- democracy in this country may be on the line. Let’s go forward together and raise the minimum wage to a living wage.
Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) is a U.S. Senator from Vermont and the incoming chair of the Senate Budget Committee.
From January 15 to January 19, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 583 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±4.1 percentage points.
From January 22 to January 25, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 563 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±4.1 percentage points.