Sen. Tom Udall pushed for a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour in a speech on the Senate floor.
Earlier this month, his colleague Sen. Martin Heinrich supported the increased minimum wage that President Barack Obama called for in a State of the Union speech.
“$7.25 may just be a number to some, but not for so many families in my state – struggling to get by,” Udall said in his floor speech. “It means working two or three jobs just to put food on the table, or fill up the gas tank, or buy clothes for their children, and still not be able to climb out of poverty. Our nation was founded on a basic promise that no matter who you are – if you work hard – you can get ahead. We haven’t always kept that promise. We have the opportunity to do so this week for millions of hardworking men and women – young and old – who are paid the minimum wage.”
The law that Udall supports would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 hour over the next two years and from there tie it to the Consumer Price Index annually — meaning as inflation rises so will the minimum wage.
“The bill before us increases the minimum wage in three steps. It raises the minimum wage by less than a dollar six months after the bill is signed,” Udall explained. “A year later, it bumps up the minimum wage by ninety-five cents. And two years after the first increase, it would finally reach $10.10, which is about where it would be if it had kept up with inflation over the past 40 years.”
Such an increase is an unlikely in the current Congress.
While Democrats are largely on board with an increase, Republicans are opposed to increasing the minimum wage and they control the House of Representatives and have enough members to filibuster a bill in the U.S. Senate.
Democrats say an increase will help working Americans while Republicans say that an increase will put an undue burden on small businesses and cause more unemployment.
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