‘A Living Wage’: Capitol Hill Democrats Push To Raise Federal Minimum to $17/Hour
Current rate is just $7.25 an hour
A group of Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour, a dramatic increase from the current level of just $7.25.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee , and Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott, of Virginia, ranking Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, introduced the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 for all workers and gradually eliminating sub-minimum wages for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, and youth workers.
The federal minimum wage hasn’t been increased in more than 15 years.
Sanders last week forced a vote on an amendment to the Republican budget resolution in the Senate calling for raising the federal minimum wage to at least $17 an hour over the next five years. Every Democrat voted for that amendment while every Republican but one opposed it.
Last year, nearly one in four workers in the United States made less than $17 per hour. The Raise the Wage will raise the federal minimum wage to $17 over five years, eliminate the tipped subminimum wage over seven years, eliminate the sub-minimum wage for workers with disabilities over five years, and eliminate the sub-minimum wage for youth workers over seven years.
Passing the Raise the Wage Act of 2025 would provide raises to over 22 million workers across the country by 2030, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
“The $7.25 an hour minimum wage is a starvation wage. It must be raised to a living wage – at least $17 an hour,” Sanders said in a statement about the legislation. “In the year 2025, a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, we can no longer tolerate millions of workers trying to survive on just $10 or $12 an hour. Congress can no longer ignore the needs of the working class of this country. The time to act is now.”
Raising the minimum wage to a living wage to a living wage is not a radical idea, proponents of the legislation said. In 2024, voters in Missouri and Alaska overwhelmingly voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In 2022, voters in Nebraska voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In 2020, Florida voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
As a result of inflation, $15 an hour a couple of years ago would be over $18 an hour today. Moreover, if the federal minimum wage had increased with worker productivity over the last 57 years, it would be more than $23 an hour today, not $7.25 an hour.
“No person working full-time in America should be living in poverty. The Raise the Wage Act will increase the pay and standard of living for nearly 22 million workers across this country. Raising the minimum wage is good for workers, good for business, and good for the economy. When we put money in the pockets of American workers, they will spend that money in their communities,” said Scott.
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