Passage of the bill is a victory for fast-food workers, who have been pushing for a $15 minimum wage across the country for more than five years.
“It’s long overdue. It’s what we really need and what we really deserve,” Bettie Douglas, a McDonald’s worker from St. Louis, Missouri, told Vox shortly before the vote. Douglas, who is 61, has been working at the fast-food chain for 13 years, earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 nearly the entire time.
The Raise the Wage Act would have a huge impact on working families like Douglas’s. The bill is expected to boost pay for 27 million US workers, lifting 1.3 million households out of poverty, according to an analysis released earlier this month by congressional economists.
But the income boost may come with a cost. The Congressional Budget Office says it could trigger 1.3 million job losses for low-paid workers like Douglas. Most recent academic research suggests that’s unlikely and would lead to few — if any — lost jobs.
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/18/20697509/minimum-wage-bill-raise-the-wage-act
“It’s long overdue. It’s what we really need and what we really deserve,” Bettie Douglas, a McDonald’s worker from St. Louis, Missouri, told Vox shortly before the vote. Douglas, who is 61, has been working at the fast-food chain for 13 years, earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 nearly the entire time.
The Raise the Wage Act would have a huge impact on working families like Douglas’s. The bill is expected to boost pay for 27 million US workers, lifting 1.3 million households out of poverty, according to an analysis released earlier this month by congressional economists.
But the income boost may come with a cost. The Congressional Budget Office says it could trigger 1.3 million job losses for low-paid workers like Douglas. Most recent academic research suggests that’s unlikely and would lead to few — if any — lost jobs.
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/18/20697509/minimum-wage-bill-raise-the-wage-act