The Senate may vote this week on a House Republican bill that would immediately cut the minimum wage for some groups of workers and gradually raise the minimum wage for other groups of workers. The bill would also give an average $1.4 million tax break to the wealthiest 8,200 estates in the country, driving up the federal budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. In short, the bill is a sham.
It is not surprising that Republican leaders in Congress larded up a minimum wage increase with a wage cut and massive tax breaks. But it is shameful. It means that while some groups of low-wage workers would get a wage increase, hundreds of thousands of workers in Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Guam would see a decrease in their wages.
A true national minimum wage increase must raise the wages of all workers across the board, plain and simple. But House Republicans still refuse to allow a clean vote to increase the minimum wage. This bill’s harmful provisions prove once again just how deceptive and cynical Republican leaders are willing to be just to score political points.
The Senate must reject this deceptive legislation. Americans deserve a Congress that will pass an honest national minimum wage increase that benefits all working families. Democrats believe that it is time for a new direction that will value and reward the contributions that workers make to our nation’s workforce and economy, and we will continue to fight for the clean minimum wage increase that working families deserve.