This Republican senator says he wants to raise the minimum wage to $ 15

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri proposed a bill on Tuesday that would increase the federal minimum wage at $ 15 per hour, his last movement to be framed as a new type of pro-workser republican.

Hawley’s legislation is not in danger of becoming law: his republican companions have the majority in the Senate and have been blocking minimum wage increases for years. But the proposal aligns it with a central democratic demand and separates Hawley from the traditional anti-union and free market of the Republican party when it comes to labor policy.

“At this time, working families, I mean, have not obtained a real salary increase in years, and nothing can be affected,” Hawley told News themezone. “At this time, the federal minimum wage, if index for inflation, or in relation to inflation, is the lowest level since the 1940s.”

The federal minimum is only $ 7.25 per hour and has not been raised in more than 15 years, with much the longest section since it was created during the great depression. It prevails in the 21 states that currently do not demand a higher one, many of them grouped in the south.

“At this time, working families, I mean, have not obtained a real salary increase in years, and nothing can be affected.”

– Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri (R)

Hawley’s bill, copatrocated by Vermont’s Democratic Senator Peter Welch, would raise the salary floor to $ 15, then bind him to an inflation index to increase the cost of life, a common feature in a more progressive legislation. Such walking would force increases in all, except in the mostly blue states, where the salary floor has already risen above that level.

Hawley did not pretend that his proposal has many possibilities to become law. “I will try to move it. I mean, I would love to vote it,” he said.

The proposal puts Hawley very much ahead of other Republicans, but even behind the Democrats on the subject. Most of the Democratic legislators are now pressing for a minimum wage of $ 17, arguing that $ 15, the shout of recovery of the fight for the labor campaign of $ 15, which began in the fast food industry in 2012, has become inappropriate as living salary due to inflation.

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Although it supports a more aggressive increase, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) Seemed pleased to see Hawley separate from other Republicans on the subject.

“I think every Democrat, last month, voted to raise the minimum wage to $ 17, and I will wait to work with Senator Hawley,” Sanders told News themezone on Tuesday, referring to an April vote in an amendment to a symbolic budget resolution. The amendment failed by a vote of 47 to 52 With each Republican except Hawley voting no.

Hawley said that if the Republican party wants to be marked as the Workers Party, which makes, according to President Donald Trump’s statements and other leaders, then Republicans must support policies that benefit the working class.

“This is what President Trump ran. I mean, if we are going to be a working group, we have to do something for working people, and working people have not received an increase in years,” said Hawley.

“They position Hawley himself as a populist, conservative in favor of the workers, has suspected many suspicions of the progressive who fear it is a ploy to drain even more the support of the working class of the Democratic Party.”

Hawley is not the first Republican in supporting a minimum increase in the wage. In 2021, Senator Tom Cotton (Ark.) And then Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) proposed An impulse of $ 7.25 to $ 10. But the bill included an immigration measure that would have ordered the national use of E-Verify to take energetic measures against undocumented workers, a poisonous pill for Democrats who is not part of Hawley’s legislation.

Earl this year, Hawley launched a policy platform called “”PRO-TRABAJER FRAME. “It included some pro-labor reforms typically associated with the Democrats, such as putting limits to the mandatory meetings of” captive audience “, in which employers press workers not to form unions.

Then, in March, he joined the Democratic Senator Cory Booker (NJ) in Proposing an invoice That would accelerate the process for workers to ensure their first union contracts, the type of legislation that a typical Republican would not approach.

As with Vice President JD Vance, Hawley positions himself as a populist, conservative in favor of workers, has suspected many suspicions of progressives that fear it is a ploy to drain even more the support of the working class of the Democratic Party. But when it comes to moving legislation, legislators like Sanders like the idea of ​​having a Republican to work with.

“It would be great if we could get other Republicans,” said Vermont senator. “$ 7.25 The federal minimum wage is a national misfortune. We have to increase it.”