{"id":177840,"date":"2021-02-26T18:16:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T23:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177840"},"modified":"2021-02-26T18:43:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T23:43:59","slug":"why-two-democratic-senators-oppose-the-15-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-two-democratic-senators-oppose-the-15-minimum-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Two Democratic Senators Oppose the $15 Minimum Wage"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-two-democratic-senators-oppose-the-15-minimum-wage%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177840&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1231358250.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Biden administration has littered its coronavirus relief bill with poison pills, one of which is an attempt to raise the federal minimum wage to $15, a proposal that has been effectively neutered by two moderate Democrat senators whose states would suffer tremendously from such a hike.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona voiced their opposition to boosting the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $15 as part of the coronavirus relief bill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s important is whether or not it\u2019s directly related to short-term COVID relief. And if it\u2019s not, then I am not going to support it in this legislation,\u201d\u00a0Sinema\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/02\/12\/kyrsten-sinema-democrats-468768\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>\u00a0in an interview with\u00a0<em>Politico<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Manchin agreed, saying in a statement that while he plans to vote for the relief bill, its focus should be \u201ctargeted on the COVID-19 crisis and Americans who have been most impacted by this pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo I\u2019m not,\u201d Manchin <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/536977-machin-says-he-doesnt-support-raising-minimum-wage-to-15-per-hour?rl=1\">responded<\/a> to <em>The Hill<\/em> when asked whether he is supportive of a $15 federal minimum wage. \u201cI\u2019m supportive of basically having something that\u2019s responsible and reasonable,\u201d he said, adding that West Virginia could reasonably do $11 per hour adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that Democrats cannot include the $15 minimum wage hike in the economic relief package because the proposal does not fit the parameters for budget reconciliation, a procedure Democrats are using to pass the bill with only a simple majority of votes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she still plans to include it in the House version of the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Manchin and Sinema\u2019s decision to break from the party line in a bitterly split Senate does not bode well for Democrats\u2019 future attempts to fulfill one of President Biden\u2019s key campaign promises. Even Biden himself said he doubted the proposed wage hike would survive in the relief bill, although he has committed to working on a stand-alone $15 minimum wage bill. The Senate needs all Democrats to vote as a bloc for Biden\u2019s agenda if no Republican crosses party lines, after which Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tie-breaking vote.<\/p>\n<p>The federal minimum wage has not increased since 2009, when it was bumped up to $5.15. However, most states have state minimums that are higher than the federal minimum, and only 21 states still allow employers to pay workers no more than the federal minimum wage.\u00a0Currently,\u00a0West Virginia\u2019s minimum wage is set at $8.75 an hour, while Arizona\u2019s is $12.15.<\/p>\n<p>So why do Manchin and Sinema feel strongly enough about tempering progressives\u2019 minimum wage hopes that they would become a spoke in the wheel for the Biden agenda, risking incurring the ire of both the president and their Democratic colleagues?<\/p>\n<p>In both states, the cost of living is significantly lower than the national average. In West Virginia, a federal $15 minimum wage would cause the state to lose upwards of 12,000 jobs, while costing employers more than $869 million, according to a study released this month by the Employment Policies Institute.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the move say that raising the minimum wage to $15 in West Virginia would wreak havoc on the Mountain State\u2019s small businesses. More than half of West Virginia\u2019s workers, about 51 percent, are employed by one of the state\u2019s more than 115,000 small businesses, according to the U.S.\u00a0Small Business Administration.<\/p>\n<p>Richie Heath, executive director of the West Virginia Hospitality &#038; Travel Association, said members of those industries in his state would be \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about facing a $15 minimum wage, as well as the elimination of the tip credit for restaurants that have been operating at a limited capacity for the last six to eight months due to the pandemic. The tip credit, a separate, lower minimum wage for employees who receive tips, would be gradually eliminated by Biden\u2019s proposed Raise the Wage <a href=\"https:\/\/edlabor.house.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/2021-01-26%20Raise%20the%20Wage%20Act%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf\">Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of the hospitality and travel businesses in West Virginia have been some of the hardest hit this last year,\u201d Heath said during a phone call. \u201cAs people are still trying to emerge from this and get their feet on the ground, any increase in minimum wage \u2026 would just be ill-timed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think at the very least, we\u2019ve got businesses that would be extremely concerned that they would be able to maintain the staff that they have during the pandemic and operate as is,\u201d Heath said, adding that with West Virginia Governor Jim Justice raising restaurant capacity limits to 75 percent last week, many restaurants are hoping to bring back staff members that they have not yet been able to reemploy.<\/p>\n<p>Manchin met with the WVHTA last week and was \u201creceptive and understanding\u201d to their concerns, Heath said, adding that the Democrat appears to understand that West Virginians are in a different position than more urban and populous areas.<\/p>\n<p>The median hourly wage in West Virginia is only\u00a0$16.31, barely above the proposed $15 minimum wage, noted \u00a0Garrett Ballengee, executive director for the\u00a0Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever way you want to spin it, it would be disastrous for West Virginia,\u201d Ballengee said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see a lot of people losing their jobs unnecessarily, basically in pursuit of political pursuits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think often times minimum wage advocates like to pretend that the tradeoff or the choice is between a certain wage and a certain higher wage. I think most often that the actual tradeoff for a lot of people is a certain wage or no job at all,\u201d Ballengee said. \u201cUnfortunately economics doesn\u2019t necessarily bend itself to the will of our political class.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Manchin also met with proponents of raising the minimum wage, who argue that the issue should be a \u201chuman issue\u201d rather than a partisan one and that $15 an hour is already a compromise as it does not support the cost of living in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Because Biden and many other Democrats ran on a $15 minimum wage, \u201cit would be an ultimate abandonment and betrayal to now get here and have the power to do it and then to retreat,\u201d said\u00a0Rev. William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People\u2019s Campaign, during a press call after he met with Manchin this month.<\/p>\n<p>In Arizona, a $15 minimum wage would continue the state\u2019s trend over the last several years of raising the minimum wage in small but deeply felt increments. Many businesses in the Grand Canyon State struggled with the higher minimum and have resorted to laying off workers, asking them to work longer hours, and increasing employee workloads. Nearly 45 percent of Arizona\u2019s workers are employed by small businesses, totaling close to a million workers, the U.S. Small Business Administration says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to look at the whole ecosystem, and the pandemic has really highlighted that the economic realities of each state are very different,\u201d said\u00a0Dan Bogert, chief operating officer of the Arizona Restaurant Association.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Arizona specifically, we\u2019re a hospitality-driven state, so those types of businesses, restaurant businesses, hotel businesses are really needed for our job recovery, and this would create some additional barriers to that,\u201d Bogert said, noting that the wage hike would actually end up\u00a0lowering the take-home pay for many of Arizona\u2019s servers.<\/p>\n<p>While there are some positive signs as the state\u2019s restaurant industry begins to creep back, about 15 to 20 percent of Arizona\u2019s pre-pandemic restaurant workforce has yet to be brought back, Bogert said.<\/p>\n<p>During the highest point of pandemic lockdowns, between 1,000 and 1,200 of Arizona\u2019s 10,000 restaurants shuttered permanently, and 80 percent of the state\u2019s restaurant workforce was laid off, according to the ARA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think that we would say that we\u2019re in a position where we don\u2019t want to have a discussion about wage issues for working Americans,\u201d Bogert added, but the $15 minimum wage proposal is simply \u201cthe wrong bill at the wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 2001 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epionline.org\/wp-content\/studies\/vedder_06-2001.pdf\">study<\/a> by prominent\u00a0economists Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway, both\u00a0economics professors at Ohio University,\u00a0found that \u201cminimum wages, because of inefficient targeting of the poor and unintended adverse consequences on employment and earnings, are ineffective as an antipoverty device.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study examined whether the national minimum wage was effective in lowering the poverty rate and concluded that it was not. In fact, for some subgroups of age, gender, and race,\u00a0the minimum wage actually appeared to raise the poverty level, the study found.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, just last month, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2021-02\/56975-Minimum-Wage.pdf\">estimated<\/a> that raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025, as the Democrats\u2019 bill would do, would evaporate 1.4 million jobs, even though it would also raise pay for 17 million workers and lift 900,000 people out of poverty. Meanwhile, one third of small business owners say they expect to lay off employees if Congress passes a $15 an hour minimum wage, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/02\/10\/one-third-of-small-businesses-say-15-minimum-wage-means-layoffs.html\">according<\/a> to a CNBC SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey conducted last month.<\/p>\n<p>For now though, the stark consequences predicted to result from one of the Biden agenda\u2019s key progressive goals have been kicked down the road, thanks to two of the Senate\u2019s most moderate Democrats, who appear to foresee irreparable harm to their states\u2019 economies.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biden administration has littered its coronavirus relief bill with poison pills, one of which is an attempt to raise the federal minimum wage to $15, a proposal that has &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2274329,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1231358250.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Why Two Democratic Senators Oppose the $15 Minimum Wage","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1231358250.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Why Two Democratic Senators Oppose the $15 Minimum Wage","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}