GOP senator rejects $15 minimum wage saying he once earned $6 an hour, or $23 with inflation yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
1. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled Thursday that Democrats cannot include raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour in their $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. MacDonough said the proposal did not meet the requirements to be included in the package under the budget reconciliation process, which Democrats are using to approve the stimulus with a simple majority. That means they won't have to win over any Republicans, who want a smaller relief package. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) opposed raising the minimum wage, which has been set at $7.25 per hour since 2009. Manchin said he supported $11 an hour instead. The ruling only applies to the Senate, and the House is moving toward a Friday vote on a package that includes the wage hike. [CNBC, The Washington Post]2. Costco CEO Craig Jelinek announced Thursday that the company would raise its minimum wage to $16 an hour next week. The plan came as Democrats push for raising
Republicans rallied solidly against Democrats' proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill as lawmakers awaited a decision by the Senate's parliamentarian that could bolster or potentially kill a pivotal provision hiking the federal minimum wage. GOP leaders were honing attacks on the package as a job killer that does too little to reopen schools or businesses shuttered for the coronavirus pandemic and that was not only wasteful but also even unscrupulous.