Economic Policy Institute - Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.),
along with Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.),
introduced the Raise the Wage Act of 2017, a bill that would raise the
federal minimum wage in eight steps to $15 per hour by 2024. Beginning
in 2025, the minimum wage would be “indexed” to median wages so that
each year, the minimum wage would automatically be adjusted based
on growth in the median wage. The bill would also gradually increase the
subminimum wage for tipped workers (or “tipped minimum wage”), which
has been fixed at $2.13 per hour since 1991, until it reaches parity
with the regular minimum wage. While raising the minimum wage would
benefit both women and men, it would disproportionately raise pay for
women.
- Although men make up a larger share of the overall U.S. workforce, the majority of workers who would be affected by raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2024 (55.6 percent) are women.
- 23.1 million women, or 33.8 percent of the female workforce, would
receive higher pay if the minimum wage were raised to $15 by 2024.
- 31.5 percent of white working women (12.7 million white women) would get a raise.
- 43.1 percent of black working women (4.0 million black women) would get a raise.
- 38.4 percent of Hispanic working women (4.6 million Hispanic women) would get a raise.
- 20.4 percent of Asian working women (1.0 million Asian women) would get a raise.
- Over 11.6 million working parents would receive higher pay under a minimum wage increase to $15 by 2024. Nearly a third, or 32.0 percent, of working mothers (7.6 million) would receive a raise (as would 16.8 percent of working fathers).
- Children would benefit too: nearly one-quarter of children (19 million children) have at least one parent who would get a raise.
- Of the 11.6 million working parents who would receive a raise, 4.5 million are single parents, accounting for 10.8 percent of all the workers who would be affected by a raise of the minimum wage.
- Among single parents, the effects of the increase are more dramatic than for parents overall: 44.6 percent of all working single mothers (3.6 million) would receive a raise if the federal minimum wage were increased to $15 by 2024 (as would nearly a third—31.0 percent—of working single fathers).
- Tipped workers—whose base pay will gradually be raised to the regular minimum wage—are predominantly women (66.6 percent) and disproportionately young; however, the majority are at least 25, and more than a quarter are at least 40 years of age.
2 comments:
Unfortunately the US needs a $15 an hour minimum wage right now, not 8 years in the future.
Now in 2017, $15 an hour, or $31,200 a year wage, is inadequate to rent an studio apartment in most larger cities. The current rate of inflation, will outstrip wage increases long before 2024. The wage comparisons with the past on cost of living are inadequate because they don't accurately reflect new costs that are necessary today, but didn't even exist 25 years ago, like cell phones, internet, or cable TV. I'd guess that Bernie and friends hope to write a bill that will actually pass this clusterfuck that DC is today, but I won't hold my breath. Workers need a raise today, not baby steps to a minimum wage that will be inadequate long before it reaches it's final installment.
Before Sanders completely sold out to the Democratic Party he used to advocate for a living wage, a figure today that would come closer to being approximately $25 or so an hour. However, the Democratic Party's decided concession to the impending 'progressive' push back they expected to crop up during the 2016 campaign was to hawk $15 an hour minimum wage. Sanders dutifully abandoned the living wage rhetoric and parroted the party line $15. Only briefly after his concession speech to Hillary did Sanders dare utter living wage. Such talk was short lived, and as this legislation indicated old Bernie is still hawking the party line. The comment above is correct is stating that workers need significant relief now, and quite truthfully they need a realistic living wage, not this $15 an hour palliative the corporate Democrats are offering up.
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