Federal Legislation - Competing Democrat and Republican Plans to Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

In opposition to the Biden Administration’s proposal to increase the Federal minimum wage to $15.00 an hour over a five-year period, Senators Tom Cotton and Mitt Romney introduced a bill, titled the “Higher Wages for American Workers Act”, which proposes to increase the Federal minimum wage only to $10.00 an hour over the same period of time.  The press release provides:

Rather than destroy 1.4 million jobs like a $15 minimum wage, this proposal would raise wages for 3.5 million workers without harming the very workers it’s intended to protect.”

This table shows the proposed “Higher Wages for American Workers Act”  increases in the minimum wage over time:

Year

Federal Minimum Wage

Small Businesses

Youth Minimum Wage

Current

$7.25

$7.25

$4.25

Post-Pandemic Year 1

$8.00

$7.75

$4.75

Year 2

$8.75

$8.25

$5.25

Year 3

$9.50

$8.75

$5.75

Year 4

$10.00

$9.25

$6.00

Year 5

$10.00

$9.75

$6.00

Year 6

Indexed to Inflation

Equal to Federal Minimum Wage

Indexed to Inflation


Compare and contrast the above to the proposed minimum wage increases in the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021”, which does not categorize types of workers:

Year

Federal Minimum Wage

Current

$7.25

Year 2021

$9.50

Year 2022

$11.00

Year 2023

$12.50

Year 2024

$14.00

Year 2025

$15.00

Year 2026 and beyond

Indexed to the percentage increase, if any, in the median hourly wages of all employees

 

I hope this is of value.