The Raise the Wage Act creates a schedule of planned wage increases for employees with disabilities and eliminates the tipped wage
Joanna Fantozzi
House Democrats introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 on Tuesday which would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, and phase out the subminimum tipped wage that allows employers to factor gratuities into wages for tipped hourly employees. The bill, which was introduced by the House Committee on Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott (Va.-03) and incoming Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) updates the original Raise the Wage Act of 2019, which was not passed by Senate Republicans in 2019.
The bill would also index future minimum wage increases to median wage growth so that the value of the “minimum wage does not once again erode over time” and would phase out subminimum wages for adolescent workers and employees with disabilities.
The Economic Policy Institute has estimated that the Raise the Wage Act would increase incomes for 32 million Americans, including one-third of Black workers and one-quarter of all Latino workers.
Chairman Scott’s bill cosponsor, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has been advocating for a $15 minimum wage for years:
“Today in America we’re facing massive wealth and income inequality,” Sanders said during a Tuesday press briefing on the minimum wage bill. “We must never lose sight of the fact that over half of workers in America today are living paycheck to paycheck. …] In the richest country in the history of the world if you work 40 hours a week you should not be living in poverty. This is not a radical idea; it’s what the American people want.”
Read more about the Raise the Wage Act of 2021: Congress Democrats introduce the Raise the Wage Act that would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025.
Contact Joanna Fantozzi at [email protected]
Follow her on Twitter: @JoannaFantozzi
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