Romney, Sinema teaming up on proposal to raise minimum wage

Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are teaming up on a bill to increase the minimum wage. 

Romney declined to provide details on the proposal, though he suggested that he and Sinema had largely reached an agreement. 

“We’re negotiating a minimum wage proposal which we would ultimately take to our group of 20 and see how they react to it and then go from there,” Romney said, referring to a bipartisan group 20 centrist-minded senators.

Romney also wouldn’t disclose the phase-in timeline or what the minimum wage would be raised to. 

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told The Huffington Post, which first reported on the Romney-Sinema proposal, that he believed the bipartisan measure would raise the minimum wage to $11 per hour. 

Manchin has also been circulating a proposal that would raise the minimum wage to $11 per hour and index it to inflation. 

The bipartisan talks come after a progressive push to include a minimum wage hike of $15 per hour in the latest coronavirus relief bill failed. The provision ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the Senate parliamentarian, who advised that it couldn’t be included, and several centrists voted against trying to add it back in.  

A group of Senate Democrats met with Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) last month to discuss the path forward and are expected to meet again this week.