Source: The Washington Post
By Eli Rosenberg
February 8, 2021
Raising the minimum wage to $15-an-hour could result in 1.4 million jobs being lost by 2025, although it would also lift 900,000 people out of poverty, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The report comes as senior Democrats debate whether to include raising the federal minimum wage in a budget resolution that is largely designed to help the sputtering economic recovery and aid vaccine distribution amid the pressures of the pandemic.
The policy has split the more liberal wing of the Democratic party from moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), who has said that he does not support the proposal.
The existing federal minimum wage, at $7.25 an hour, has not been changed since 2009 and remains below historic levels when adjusted for inflation, despite gains in worker productivity.
Last Friday, President Biden said in an interview with CBS Evening News that he guessed the measure wouldn’t make the covid relief package.
“I am prepared, as president of the United States on a separate negotiation on minimum wage, to work my way up — from– what it is now, which is pain– look, no one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty wage. And if you’re making less than $15 an hour, you’re living below the poverty wage,” Biden said in the CBS interview.
