Economics in Brief: Congress Tries Again to Raise the Minimum Wage
The Raise the Wage Act of 2021 has been introduced in both houses of Congress. The act would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 and phase out the tipped worker minimum wage of $2.13. The nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI) notes that the federal minimum wage has not changed for a decade — the longest it has remained the same since the minimum wage was established in 1938. According to the EPI, the increase would affect some 32 million workers, representing 21% of the U.S. workforce. Not only would the change overwhelmingly benefit essential workers, it would wo...