Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which the House will soon vote on, must remove tax deductions from major corporations that don’t pay a minimum of $15 an hour. Further, Sanders said the bill should include provisions that incentivize small businesses to raise their wages.
“If your goal is to shut down independently owned mom and pop shops on Main Street and grow the market share of big-box megastores then I can think of nothing better than passing a federal $15 minimum wage today, because it will devastate small businesses,” NIFB’s Jeff Brabant said.
Bernie Sanders has made it this year’s great cause to increase the federal minimum wage to $15. But regulatory law expert Mario Loyola writes that “Americans don’t fully understand the many ways it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help.”
With the ball in hand and blockers out front, President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose progressive brand of politics pushes into democratic socialism, lurched last week into the idea of raising the federal minimum wage to $15.
A $15 minimum wage would result in 1.4 million jobs lost and disproportionately hurt younger workers and those with less education, a new Congressional Budget Office report says.
The future of many Vermont small businesses is at risk due to a perfect storm of economic, regulatory and pandemic-related threats. Small business leaders are recommending several steps to support jobs and economic recovery.
Democratic lawmakers and advocates for the working poor want to raise New Hampshire’s minimum wage, but the move faces pushback from business groups who say it will cost jobs and hurt the state’s economy.
Large corporations have endorsed and lobbied for a $15 federal minimum wage in recent years, but while they can afford such a policy, small businesses would be harmed, studies have shown.
President Joe Biden supports incrementally raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double the current rate of $7.25 an hour. Late last week, he signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay at least $15 per hour wages and provide emergency paid leave to employees.
The latest round in the legislative battle between the Democrat-Progressive Legislature and Republican Gov. Phil Scott went to the lawmakers Tuesday noon, as the House overrode his veto of S.23, raising the minimum wage to $12.55 by Jan. 1, 2022.
Governor Phil Scott on Monday vetoed S.23, a bill that would have mandated an increase to Vermont’s minimum wage. This mandate would have been on top of increases that already occur annually under current Vermont law.
The Vermont House voted Friday to raise the state’s minimum wage to $12.55 within two years, but the measure failed to garner enough votes to override a veto, should Gov. Phil Scott oppose the bill in the coming weeks.