Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley plans to present authorities Tuesday to rise the national minimum wage to $15 per hr — a presumption that aligns 1 of the astir blimpish Republican lawmakers connected Capitol Hill with immoderate of the astir wide members of Congress.
The legislation, called the "Higher Wages for American Workers Act," would rise the national modular starting successful 2026 and would besides telephone for an summation successful consequent years to lucifer inflation, CBS News has exclusively learned. Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch has signed connected arsenic a co-sponsor.
"For decades, moving Americans person seen their wages flatline. One large culprit of this is the nonaccomplishment of the national minimum wage to support up with the economical world facing hard-working Americans each day," Hawley said successful a connection to CBS News. "This bipartisan authorities would guarantee that workers crossed America payment from higher wages."
"We're successful the midst of a terrible affordability crisis, with families successful reddish and bluish states alike struggling to spend necessities similar housing and groceries," Welch said successful a connection to CBS. "A stagnant national minimum wage lone adds substance to the fire. Every hard-working American deserves a surviving wage that helps enactment a extortion implicit their caput and nutrient connected the table–$7.25 an hr doesn't adjacent travel close."
The national minimum wage presently sits astatine $7.25 per hr and has not risen since 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The determination by Hawley puts him astatine likelihood with blimpish enactment orthodoxy, which has traditionally opposed a national minimum wage summation connected the grounds that it would beryllium costly for businesses and ultimately, for consumers. But Hawley's transportation is reflective of the party's realignment successful the Trump era, wherever the president's marque of populism has fueled a displacement among working-class voters distant from Democrats and towards Republicans.
Hawley has been pushing Republicans to clasp this shift. The minimum wage authorities is portion of a broader, aspirational bundle of legislative proposals helium dubbed the "Pro-Worker Framework for the 119th Congress." This includes a connection to assistance fortify protections for national jobs, arsenic good arsenic for organizing and corporate bargaining.
Earlier this year, helium teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders to present authorities to headdress recognition paper involvement rates astatine 10%. And successful the past Congress, helium introduced authorities that would necessitate companies with revenues of $1 cardinal oregon much to wage their employees astatine slightest $15 per hour. In caller weeks, Hawley has been urging his enactment against cuts to Medicaid benefits successful the budget reconciliation bill.
In November, voters successful Hawley's location authorities of Missouri approved a ballot measurement to rise the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour, starting successful 2026. But the Legislature repealed portion of the instrumentality that would let aboriginal increases to set for inflation.
Earlier this year, President Trump rescinded a Biden-era enforcement bid that raised the minimum wage for national contractors to $17.75 per hour. At his Senate confirmation proceeding successful January, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said helium does not enactment raising the national minimum wage, arguing that it is simply a determination champion near up to the states.
Caitlin Huey-Burns is simply a legislature analogous for CBS News and a fill-in anchor for the CBS News 24/7 authorities amusement "America Decides."
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