Democrats cannot include a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour in their $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package, a Senate official ruled Thursday, derailing a party priority and an increase for millions of Americans for the time being.
Senate MP Elizabeth MacDonough decided lawmakers could not include the policy in the context of budget reconciliation, CNBC confirmed. She and her staff heard arguments from Democrats and Republicans as to whether the proposal met strict standards for deficit impacts necessary to include it in the process.
Reconciliation allows the Senate to pass bills by simple majority – in this case without Republicans wary of another large-scale bailout package. Democrats, however, faced challenges in passing on the pay rise, regardless of whether or not the rules of the chamber allowed it in the legislation.
House Democrats have included the $ 15 per hour minimum wage in the bailout bill they plan to pass Friday. It is now unclear whether House leaders will change their plan before approving it and sending it to the Senate.
A protester attends a rally held by fast food workers and supporters to celebrate the California Labor Commission’s order for the company to re-hire and recruit workers who have gone on strike for coronavirus (COVID-19) protection to reimburse, in Los Angeles, California, February 18. 2021.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
“We are deeply disappointed with this decision,” Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in a statement. “We are not going to give up the struggle to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 to help millions of American workers and their families. The American people deserve it and we are determined to make it a reality.”
The bill would raise the federal wage floor to the threshold by 2025 and then index future increases in inflation. It would lift 900,000 people out of poverty, but it will cost 1.4 million jobs, the Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier this month.
The proposal would raise wages for up to 27 million people, the CBO said.
Democrats consider raising the minimum wage – fixed at $ 7.25 an hour since 2009 – a priority, while in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. But as Republicans wonder if a $ 15 wage floor will hinder small businesses in parts of the country, the policy won’t get 60 votes in a senate split 50-50 per party.
Lindsey Graham, RS.C., member of the Senate Committee on Budgets, welcomed MacDonough’s decision Thursday.
“Very pleased that the Senate MP has ruled that an increase in the minimum wage is an inappropriate policy change in reconciliation. This decision strengthens reconciliation and cannot be used as a means of making major legislative changes – by both parties – by simple majority. of votes, ”he said in a statement.
Republican sens. Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton offered a GOP version answer to the minimum wage and proposed a plan that would increase the wage floor to $ 10 an hour and put restrictions on hiring undocumented immigrants. Arkansas, the state that Cotton represents, has a minimum wage of $ 11.
Democratic leaders will reject the framework proposed by Romney and Cotton.
Democratic sensation Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona were both at a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour. Manchin said he backed $ 11 an hour instead.
The ruling removes the biggest remaining point of conflict between Senate Democrats as they attempt to approve the aid package by March 14, when unemployment assistance programs expire.
– CNBC’s Ylan Mui contributed to this report
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