WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A Democratic party bill proposing to hike the minimum wage in the United States to $15 an hour by 2024 was introduced in the Congress Thursday.
The Bill also envisages to eliminate an exception for tipped workers, and cut the employers' option to pay handicapped workers a sub-minimum wage.
Congressional Democratic leaders who introduced the legislation included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders, who made the issue a centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign; House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, third-ranked Senate Democratic leader Patty Murray, Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee, and Rep. Keith Ellison, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The Bill has 35 co-sponsors in the Senate and 152 in the House, but it is unlikely to go far in the Republican-controlled Congress, reports say.
'If you are working 40 or 50 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty,' said Sanders, who noted it had been a decade since the Congress raised the minimum wage to the current level of $7.25.
'If we win the election, in the first 100 hours, we will pass a $15 minimum wage,' said Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker when the House passed the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007.
Several U.S. states, including Washington, New York and California, have already passed law to raise minimum wage to $15.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX