Democrats in the Senate introduced a bill Thursday that would raise the federal minimum wage to $25 per hour in five years, drawing a contrast with Republicans at a time when many workers say they're struggling to make ends meet.
The legislation is identical to a bill House Democrats put forward earlier this year, and shows a growing faction of the party is coalescing around $25 as their goal for a wage floor. The federal minimum wage is currently just $7.25 per hour and hasn't moved in 17 years.
"There is no reason that somebody should go to work full time in this country and not be able to pay their bills," Sen. Chris Murphy, one of the bill's sponsors, said at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. "It is time that everybody that works makes a dignified wage."
The bill has no chance of becoming a law while Republicans control either chamber of Congress and President Donald Trump resides in the White House. But it's part of a broader push by Democrats to show they're attuned to the needs of working people heading into the midterm elections, with the economy and cost of living top of mind for many voters.
In addition to the minimum wage boost, progressives in Congress are also pushing for increasing overtime pay, capping childcare costs, banning surveillance pricing by retailers and establishing a government-run generic drug program. Those proposals are part of an "affordability" agenda meant to squeeze Trump and Republicans at a time when his war in...
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