Congressional Democrats Seek to Raise Minimum Wage, How Will Americans Be Affected?

It appears that congressional Democrats are on a mission to revolutionize the American workforce. After passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act on Thursday, Senate Democrats have taken up a new fight: raising the minimum wage.

According to reports, Senate Democrat leaders are considering a bill proposed by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. The bill would also raise the minimum wage for those paid in tips, which has been frozen at $2.13 an hour since 1991, to 70 percent of the standard minimum wage, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

A recent closed-door meeting with outdoor economist discussed a study by the Congressional Research Service that shows the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation since 1968, Politico reported.

The study found that in 1968 the federal minimum wage of $1.60 constituted 54 percent of Americans’ average hourly earnings. Since then, that percentage has been steadily decreasing. According to Politico, the caucus was largely supportive of raising the minimum wage. And they’re not alone.

A March 2013 survey by Gallup revealed that 71 percent of Americans approve of raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. An additional 27 percent, however, were against raising the minimum wage. When broken down by political party, an astounding 91 percent of Democrats support the measure, which was proposed by President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union address, along with 68 percent of Independents and 50 percent of Republicans.

However, Democrats will have a difficult time finding support from their Republican counterparts. According to Politico, Democrats must find five Senate Republicans to join them in order to break a likely Republican filibuster on the measure. Republican aides have hinted that Senate Republicans may propose alternative methods of creating jobs instead of supporting a bill to increase minimum wages.

Democrats must also work together in deciding how much of a wage hike to support. In February, President Obama called for a hike up to $9, saying, “Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. We should be able to get that done.”

However, the new proposal by Harkin calls for a hike over $10. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Politico, “We’re all kind of in the $10 range, virtually all of us. The explanation here suggested that [Obama] would be very supportive of $10.”

A White House official later confirmed to The New York Times that the president did, in fact, support the Harkin-Miller bill. "The president has long supported raising the minimum wage so hard-working Americans can have a decent wage for a day's work to support their families and make ends meet," the White House official said. 

The discussion of wage hikes is just one of many that Congress must take part in to find a solution to a slew of economic-related issues the country is facing. In a study released early this month by Gallup, Americans reported job creation (22 percent) and Congress coming together (11 percent) as the top two solutions for improving the economy.

Raising the minimum wage came in sixth, along with cutting military spending, getting a new president and reducing the cost of education, at 3 percent. Congress last voted to increase the minimum wage in 2007 as part of the Fair Minimum Wage Act.

According to the NYT, some economists believe that the wage hike will decrease the total number of low-wage workers employed. However, a study cited as "well-regarded" found that a minimum wage hike would increase the number of low-wage workers.