A House committee early Wednesday approved part of the proposal to support the Democratic coronavirus, which includes a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour.
The Chamber’s Education and Working Body has brought forward its portion of the $ 1.9 trillion aid package in a vote of 27-21 parties. The proposal includes a provision to gradually raise the federal wage floor to $ 15 an hour by 2025.
As part of the budget vote, the House Budgets Committee will eventually merge the bills of the individual bodies into one massive bill that will allow the plan to pass through both houses of Congress by simple majority. However, the increase in the minimum wage cannot survive due to rules regulating what the legislature can include in reconciliation bills.
“We’re trying to do the best we can with that [Senate] MPs to get a minimum wage, “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., told reporters Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on Tuesday, February 2, 2021.
Oliver Contreras | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Democratic leaders support a $ 15 an hour wage floor and say it will give a boost to millions of low-wage workers as they face dangerous conditions during the pandemic. Republicans and some Democrats are opposed to a statewide standard, and some lawmakers have raised concerns that small businesses have higher costs during the economic recovery.
Both proponents and opponents of the policy have relied on data from a new report by the Congressional Budget Office to set out their arguments. The non-partisan CBO estimated it would lift 900,000 people out of poverty but would cost 1.4 million jobs over the next four years.
The agency also forecast that a minimum wage of $ 15 would increase the federal budget deficit by $ 54 billion in a decade. Senate Budgets Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Has argued that the budgetary effect means “we can clearly increase the minimum wage under the rules of reconciliation to $ 15 an hour”.
However, Democrats may not yet have their full approval to approve the raise. In the equally divided Senate, a single defect would lower the auxiliary bill.
Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va., has signaled that he would support raising the federal minimum wage to $ 11 an hour.
The federal government last raised the minimum wage to USD 7.25 per hour in 2009. The Democratic proposal would increase it to $ 9.50 an hour this year and $ 11 an hour next year. The wage would then rise to $ 12.50 per hour in 2023, to $ 14 in 2024, and to $ 15 in 2025.
The Education and Labor Committee part of the coronavirus package includes other key points from President Joe Biden’s proposal. It brings $ 170 billion to K-12 schools and colleges.
The move provides $ 39 billion in childcare grants. It offers COBRA grants to make health care more affordable for people laid off during the pandemic.
Fresh money is also being poured into the Pandemic EBT program, which funds meals for children they would otherwise have in school, and the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, commonly known as WIC is.
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