Labor

Dems Set Sights On $15 Minimum Wage After Winning House

US_Capitol_east_side | Circa September 2013 | Martin Falbisoner [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Democrats in the House are aiming to pass legislation mandating a minimum wage hike to $15 an hour by 2025, The Washington Examiner reports.

Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia will likely lead the charge if he becomes the next chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee as expected, according to the Examiner. Democrats are also reportedly planning to change the committee’s name to reflect a pro-labor agenda.

“On the legislation front, there will be a push to raise the minimum wage,” a Democratic House staffer told the Examiner.

After flipping at least 38 seats in midterm elections, Democrats have gained a large buffer in the House to make an agenda and advance legislation. The Senate remains in the hands of a GOP majority and will likely kill many of the proposals passed in the House.

With a House majority, Democrats’ main focus will likely be issuing subpoenas and investigating members of the Trump administration, including the president’s labor board. Democrats have already said that GOP members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) should recuse themselves from certain decisions based on their previous ties to management-side law firms.

A group of Democratic senators demanded in September NLRB member William Emmanuel recuse himself from a case based on recent precedent that hamstrung the court from overturning the controversial “joint-employer” decision issued under the Obama administration.

While powerless to push through legislation without GOP support, a Democratic House can make it difficult for Trump to continue enacting his agenda. In the past, though, Trump has given signs that he would support an increase to the minimum wage, which might be enough to get Republicans to support some measure, but likely not to the full $15 an hour.

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