By Morgan Phillips
May 4, 2023
Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a bill raising the minimum wage by more than $10 on Thursday.
His legislation would enact a $17 minimum wage, up from the $15 he proposed in 2021 and way up from the current $7.25 national minimum wage.
The Vermont Independent said the committee he chairs, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, would mark up the bill on June 14 and he hoped it would get a full floor vote.
Twenty-nine states, in addition to Washington, D.C. and Guam have minimum wages higher than $7.25. Average hourly earnings in the U.S. are currently $33.18.
Some 141,000 hourly workers made the federal minimum $7.25 per hour in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. read more