WASHINGTON ― Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill Thursday that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour, well over double the current rate of $7.25.
Flanked by labor leaders on Capitol Hill, Sanders said Democrats’ previous goal of boosting the wage floor to $15 will no longer suffice. The minimum wage has eroded so much that lawmakers should set their sights higher, he argued.
“It is time to pass a new livable wage,” Sanders said. “As a result of inflation, $15 an hour would be over $17 today.”
Although most states have increased their minimum wages in recent years, the federal rate of $7.25 applies in the 20 states that don’t mandate a higher one. Congress has not voted to raise the federal minimum wage since a series of increases were signed into law by then-President George W. Bush in 2007.
Democrats have tried for years to boost the minimum wage but have been stymied by Republicans. In recent years Democrats have pushed for a $15 wage floor ― the rallying cry of the Fight for $15 labor campaign, which began in the fast-food industry in 2013 and helped spur local minimum wage hikes around the country.
But Sanders, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said minimum-wage workers continue to fall behind each year as the cost of living increases.
A recent analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that in states where the federal minimum wage prevails ― many of them in the South ― 19% of workers are earning less than $15 per hour. In the 30 states that have set a higher minimum wage than the federal rate, that figure drops to 13%.
Although unions and other progressive allies might rally around $17, Sanders’ legislation is unlikely to pass the Senate, where Democrats hold a thin majority.
No Republican senators got on board with the Democrats’ $15 proposal, so there’s little reason to think any of them would support the higher rate of $17. Sanders could also struggle to attract more moderate members of his own party, such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), who never backed $15.
In 2021, the Senate rejected a measure from Sanders that would have hiked the minimum wage to $15. Eight Senate Democrats voted with every Republican against the measure.
The new proposal would also be dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled House, where it’s improbable that Republicans will move any minimum wage legislation at all.
Some Republican lawmakers have floated the idea of compromising with Democrats on a more moderate increase. In 2021, Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said they would be willing to hike the minimum wage to $10 over the course of five years, but key Democrats couldn’t get on board with that number or a GOP immigration measure that was included.
Although it has little chance of passage, Sanders’ bill is likely intended to unify the labor movement around a new goalpost for workers’ rights after years of high inflation and a possible recession on the horizon.