Photo by; a katz
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont proposed a $15 minimum age amendment, which failed to get enough votes for ratification in the United States Senate.
The proposal was voted down by every single Republican Senator and eight Democratic Senators. Initially, it was discussed in preliminary talks about the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package. However, it folded when there was a realization that there weren’t enough votes. A $15 federal minimum wage would force every single state’s minimum wage’s starting amount to $15. From there on any state government could increase it from that point if they wanted to.
COVID-19 has caused a spike in unemployment. A minimum wage of $15 could prevent someone from losing their amenities due to being unemployed. “The main roadblock when it came to the proposal was, that it should be up to the states and not the federal government,” Joseph Honer, finance professor, said. The minimum wage varies amongst states. For example, in a deep red state such as Wyoming the minimum wage is $7.25, whereas, in California, a deep blue state, it is $14. A federal minimum wage would change all of that.
Photo by Mark Reinstein
A minimum wage hike would cause the government to pay higher salaries in some cases, but it would improve the amount someone makes in their workforce. The $1.9 trillion relief package ultimately was passed by both chambers of Congress, but the $15 minimum wage proposal was left out of it. “In my eyes, I do not think a $7.25 minimum wage is enough to provide for a family of 4 let alone yourself,” Honer said.
The topic of a $15 minimum wage isn’t a popular subject to talk about. One has to wonder about the federal minimum wage being at $7.25 when the country is recovering from an economic crisis. With the country’s overall political landscape shifting to the left, a $15 minimum wage is not out of the picture.
The United States is 12th globally when it comes to its federal minimum wage. With a country consisting of 330 million people, economic classes are going to be diverse. So a starting price of $15 can make a massive difference from somebody living paycheck-to-paycheck and making $7.25 an hour.
Both chambers of Congress struggled to pass the finalized, watered-down $1.9 trillion Rescue Plan, with the House voting 220-212 in favor and the Senate voting 50-49 in favor of it. So it should not have come as a shock when the Senate voted 42-58 against the $15 minimum wage proposal, which included eight Democrats voting no. You would think that this would pass considering that the Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate, but it turns out to be a pipedream for the left, and not a realistic law as of right now, with the current state of partisanship in American politics.
