A modest proposal regarding raising the minimum wage.

[Tom Rinaldo]

As I understand it, the House version of the Covid Aid Bill would have raised the Federal minimum wage in increments, reaching $15 an hour in 2025. I don't know the exact figure, but obviously had that bill been enacted, the Federal minimum wage on December 31, 2022 would remain below $15 an hour, while being significantly higher than it is currently.

My proposal is that Democrats now seek passage of legislation that will raise the federal minimum wage, say in six month or so increments, between now and January 1, 2023, to whatever level the House bill would have achieved by that date. And leave it at that for now. Doing so would allow so called "moderates" in both parties to claim victory in having resisted officially raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. They could vote to authorize a lesser increased wage instead, but in reality Americans workers would benefit no less under such a scenario through 2022 than they would have had the House version of the Covid Relief bill been approved as originally offered.

Midterm elections next occur in November 2022. If Democrats can lock in for America's working class the same pay raises between now and January 2023 that was proposed in the House Covid bill, the next Congress can pick up the ball from there, passing legislation to further raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by the same point in 2025 that the current House version of the Covid relief bill now calls for. Meanwhile workers will have gotten all the raises in the minimum wage that Democrats initially sought to provide through 2022. Democrats can campaign during the 2022 midterms on completing the job, promising to raise the minimum wage to the exact same target level ($15 an hour) on the exact same timeline (by 2025) as they originally proposed. Hopefully Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress, elected on that campaign promise, can make such legislation among the first priorities tackled when Congress subsequently reconvenes.