Dem leader Pelosi backs $15 minimum wage

[L. Coyote]

Source: thehill.com - Mike Lillis - 07/28/15 11:20 AM ED

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday endorsed a $15 minimum wage, joining a growing chorus of liberals on and off Capitol Hill pushing to more than double the current $7.25 rate.

In April, top Democratic leaders — including Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Labor Secretary Tom Perez — had consolidated their support behind legislation hiking the wage to $12 per hour.

But since then, liberals in both chambers — including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2016 presidential hopeful — have introduced legislation pushing the rate to the higher $15 level by 2020. And a number of local governments, including Pelosi's San Francisco, have moved to adopt that figure.

Pelosi said Tuesday that she supports the higher rate nationwide .....

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/249422-dem-leader-pelosi-backs-15-minimum-wage

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PAST DUE

[L. Coyote]

1. Congress, Consumer News, Money July 28, 2015 Pelosi Supports $15 Minimum Wage

http://www.talkradionews.com/congress/2015/07/28/pelosi-supports-15-minimum-wage.html#.VbhIb7e2j9I

By Sydnee Fried

(TRNS) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday threw her support behind increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.

A senior staff member confirmed to TRNS that while Pelosi supports the wage hike to $15, it is unlikely to make it through the halls of Congress and a $12 wage hike is more likely.

Pelosi, as well as other Democratic leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), have joined together to fight for a minimum wage increase to $12.

.......

[Recursion]

2. The *median* hourly wage in Mississippi is $13.76

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_ms.htm#00-0000

I'm kind of curious to see what would happen, though I fear it might look like Greece...

[joshcryer]

4. Policy practice is to have localized wage bumps.

Cities bumping up the wage, has been going on for awhile: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6120756

I doubt there are votes for a $15 wage bump but probably $10 is feasible and wouldn't have much of an effect either way (would make for good campaign promises though).

[joshcryer]

3. Likely to be a party plank.

But $22 would be much closer to inflation.

[Recursion]

5. $22 would be a good place to put it, and then index to the CPI

That would be a hell of a change to the economy, though.

[joshcryer]

6. Ted Kennedy tried to do this under Clinton.

Just index the damn thing to some inflation metric. Clinton nixed the idea because it was campaign season so it never went anywhere.

Here's a fascinating memo from 1998 where Clinton's team goes over the various approaches: http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research-Digital-Library/formerlywithheld/batch4/2006-0309-F.pdf

More odious, the idea is that if there was an index, it would no longer be usable as a campaign issue: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/clinton-minimum-wage_n_5174999.html

No more "we want to raise the minimum wage!" type of campaign ads, etc.

So this is likely to be an eternal thing that won't ever get fixed. That's why I wait for the basic income thing I'm always on about... heh.

[Recursion]

7. Sort of like Republicans with abortion

The last thing they want is to see Roe v Wade overturned, because then they can't beat that drum anymore.

Sigh.