House passes $15 minimum wage bill

House passes $15 minimum wage bill

By Katie Lobosco, Ashley Killough and Clare Foran, CNN
Updated 12:15 PM ET, Thu July 18, 2019


Washington (CNN)The House passed a bill Thursday that would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade -- but there's little chance the measure will be taken up in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The House vote was 231-199.

The bill was a priority for progressives and gives a victory to a movement that's taken nearly seven years to get this far. But in its current form, the bill has no major support from the Republican side.

The Raise the Wage Act would bring the federal minimum wage up gradually from $7.25 to $15 by 2025. After that year, the rate will be indexed to the median hourly wage of all workers.

House Democrats started the process of passing a bill in March, but struggled to get support from more moderate members. In recent weeks, party leaders made some key concessions to get enough lawmakers on board. They increased the phase-in time from five to six years, and added a requirement for the government to study the economic impact of the bill after it's in effect, giving Congress the ability to make adjustments in the future.

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A $15 minimum wage started as a slogan. This week, it's set to pass the House


When fast food workers began widely protesting in 2012 for higher pay, a $15 minimum wage appeared overly ambitious.

But since then, some cities and states have raised their local minimum wages to $15 an hour on their own -- including Seattle, San Francisco, New York City and then all of California and New York State. Companies like McDonald's and Walmart stopped lobbying against raising the federal minimum wage, and Amazon adopted a $15 minimum last year.

About 1.7 million people, or about 2.1% of all hourly paid workers, earned at or below the federal minimum wage last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Republicans have by a wide majority not voiced support for the bill, concerned that raising the wage to $15 would result in too many jobs lost. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in November he doesn't think minimum wages are a good idea at all, raising doubts that President Donald Trump would sign it.

A Congressional Budget Office study published last week projected that the legislation would raise the wages of 27 million people and lead to 1.3 million fewer jobs, or 0.8% of total employment.

The US Chamber of Commerce has said it's willing to meet in the middle on some higher minimum wage, but that $15 is out of the question.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/18/polit...ote/index.html

Then the Democrats will vote a 70% tax to pay for all the FREE stuff.

$15.00 x 70% = $10.50 in taxes

Enjoy your $4.50 in take home pay!

Minimum Wage is Going Up July 1, 2019!

10/2/18

Amazon raises minimum wage to $15. for all US employees

1/2/18

“There is a new ‘minimum wage’ for federal bureaucrats – at 78 departments and independent agencies, the average employee made $100,000 or more,” OpenTheBooks said in a statement.

30,000 federal employees earn more than any governor

Higher minimum wage hasn't hurt growth in lower-paying jobs, Arizona official says

• By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services

• Jul 18, 2019 Updated 51 min ago

https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.town...ize=1200%2C865

The willingness of Arizonans to still go out and eat at places like BK Carne Asada & Hot Dogs does not appear to be affected by additional costs passed on to the customer after the state minimum wage went up. Hospitality wages are up 9.4% year-over-year.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star


PHOENIX — Wondering why the voter-mandated increase in Arizona’s minimum wage hasn’t culled jobs?

It’s because the overall state economy is doing so well, said Doug Walls, director of labor market information for the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity.

Walls said the cost to employers — the state minimum wage has gone from $8.05 an hour in 2016 to $11 now — has to be borne by someone.

But it appears affected employers are simply passing along the additional expense, he said Thursday.

And that does not appear to be affecting the willingness of people to go out and eat, drink and stay in hotels, the industries with the traditionally lowest wage rates.

“What we’re seeing is that employment growth continues to increase or growth has held steady in some of those lower-paying industries overall,” said Walls. That includes the hospitality industry, where employment is up by 2,200 over the same period a year ago.

But Walls said he’s not prepared to say the same would hold true if Congress hikes the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025, as the U.S. House voted to do Thursday.

“It’s a little bit more speculative,” he said. “But what we’ve seen with Arizona’s minimum wage increases has been continued economic growth in a multitude of industries around the state.”

Walls also reported that Arizona continues to create new jobs almost as fast as the number of people who are moving here, no small feat given the state’s population growth is the fourth fastest in the nation.

The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate for June remained at 4.9% , the same as in May — and two-tenths of a point higher than a year ago. It also is more than a point higher than the national average of 3.7%.

Still, that’s not bad news, Walls said, as he sees it as a showing of the state’s economic growth.

“We tend to think that when labor force levels increase, people are more optimistic about their opportunities to get jobs,” he said. “And they’ve been able to find those jobs within Arizona.”

Conversely, he said, the unemployment rate may be lower in other states due to “shifting demographics.”

The workforce elsewhere is aging, with people retiring, he said. “While work is needed and there are jobs out there, overall they’re not seeing the participation into the labor force that Arizona is actually seeing,” he said.

Of course, the other side to that supply-and-demand issue relates to wages: When the number of workers available is less than the number companies need, they have to offer more money.

The result is that the average hourly wage in Arizona for last month was $26.13 versus $27.87 nationally. The gap appears to be widening, with a 4.2% year-over-year increase nationwide versus 2.6% in Arizona.

One area where wages in Arizona are more than keeping pace is in the category of “leisure and hospitality,” generally defined as bars, restaurants and lodging places. There, wages are up 9.4% year-over-year.

As this sector of the economy grows, there are more opportunities for workers to look for other employment. “Employers might have been forced to increase wages as it was anyway,” even if the 2016 ballot measure did not impose a mandate, Walls said.

“But the economic activity that we’re seeing in Arizona does not appear to have been dampened by the increase in the minimum wage.”

https://tucson.com/business/higher-m...a2afba538.html

Are office workers who make $15 an hour now, have computer skills, dress professionally, meet with clients, have good grammar, spelling, and speaking skills, going to get raises to $20 an hour?