Thread by @studentactivism

Specifically, it would raise the minimum wage to $9.50 on the day of passage, then by $1.50 one year later, increasing by $1.50 each year until it reached $15 in 2025.

https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1354101885058297856

One other detail that the NBC screenshots leave out: After 2025, this bill would index the minimum wage to median wages, raising it automatically every year.

https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1354093731851415555

Here's the full text of the bill. edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/…

The minimum wage bill introduced today would phase out the tipped minimum wage loophole, raising it by $2.50 a year until the tipped minimum wage reached parity with the regular minimum wage in 2025.

Similarly, it phases out the separate minimum wage for disabled workers on the same timetable.

The timeline for the minimum wage hike in this bill sucks, but the indexing and elimination of sub-minimum wages for tipped and disabled workers is really good and important.

(There's a reason why Bernie and Jayapal are lead sponsors on this bill.)

To answer a couple of questions people have asked: First, most of the provisions of this bill would take effect before the 2024 election, if the bill passes this year.

If this bill passes in its present form this year, the minimum wage will be $14 on Election Day 2024, and the sub-minimum wage for tipped and disabled workers will be $12.50, en route to being phased out entirely the following year.

Second, any midterm Democratic congressional losses wouldn't effect the law, since Biden could veto any attempt to repeal or amend it while he remained in office.

Third, any attempt to rescind the final-year raises or the subsequent indexing couldn't be implemented by a president alone—they'd have to pass congress as well.

Fourth, the indexing after the minimum reaches $15 pegs the minimum wage to the median wage nationally. It can't go down if that median goes down, and goes up by a parallel percentage to the median.

(Most years, indexing to the median wage is better for workers than indexing to inflation—by my calculation, if the 2009 $7.25 minimum wage had been indexed to median wages it'd be a bit over $10 now, but only about $9 if indexed to inflation.)

Good question. And no, the Labor Secretary's role is just to calculate and announce the amount of the wage hike, based on the median national wage as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Secretary doesn't have discretion in setting the wage.

https://twitter.com/Elcor13/status/1354162234738565121

Wow. here's something interesting—this bill is actually considerably BETTER than the symbolic minimum wage bill the Dems passed in the House in 2019. edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/…

The 2019 bill, like this one, phased in completely in 2025, but with smaller, later incremental steps. And while it narrowed the tipped-wage and disabled-worker gaps, it didn't eliminate them entirely, even in the final phase of the bill.

(The 2019 bill would have eliminated the youth minimum wage, which this bill also does, on a similar time schedule.) dol.gov/agencies/whd/f…

In 2019, the Dems knew their bill was going nowhere. That this one is more aggressive both in benchmarks and in principles is a good sign.

UPDATE: One correction. The Ed&Labor Committee factsheet I linked above is misleading. The 2019 bill WOULD have eliminated the tipped, youth, and disabled sub-minimum wages, but not until 2027, 2027, and 2026, respectively.

The new bill does all three quicker, and with higher annual steps, but the old bill would have eventually closed all three gaps. Thanks to @Distopos for the catch.