Senate Democrats Drop Minimum Wage Hike in Stimulus BillBreitbart News 1 Mar 2021
Democrats’ efforts to include a minimum wage increase in their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill seemed all but dead Monday as Senate leaders prepared to begin debate on their own version of the House-passed aid package.
Top Democrats have abandoned a potential amendment threatening tax increases on big companies that don’t boost workers’ pay to certain levels, Senate aides said. Four days after the chamber’s parliamentarian said Senate rules forbid the inclusion of a straight-out minimum wage increase in the relief measure, Democrats seemed to have exhausted their most realistic options for quickly salvaging the pay hike.
“At this moment, we may not have path, but I hope we can find one†for pushing the federal pay floor to $15 an hour, said No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois.
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has said he would support for a more moderate wage increase, from the current $7.25 to $11 an hour, but that $15 would be unworkable for rural states.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that a phase-in of a $15 minimum wage by 2025 would lift some 900,000 people from poverty but kill 1.4 million jobs.
Leftwing Democrats rejected the notion of compromise on the hike.
more
https://www.breitbart.com/news/senate-democrats-consider-changes-to-house-virus-relief-bill/
