VICTORIA, Texas (CN) — Texas and two other states sued President Joe Biden on Thursday for forcing federal contractors to pay their employees a $15 minimum wage.
They claim Biden, focused on his goals of reducing poverty and income inequality, ignored how his fiat will burden states with higher unemployment benefit costs.
Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi sued Biden and Labor Department Secretary Marty Walsh in a bid to block the wage hike that took effect Jan. 30 under an executive order Biden signed last April after seven U.S. Senate Democrats refused to approve an amendment to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that would have raised the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025.
The federal minimum wage has been set at $7.25 per hour since July 2009, but 30 U.S. states have raised theirs above that amount or have passed legislation that will do so in the coming years.
Louisiana and Mississippi’s minimum wage floor is tied to the fed’s because they have no state minimum wage laws, while Texas’ is also $7.25.
Numerous studies show Americans earning that rate in full-time jobs cannot pay their bills and support their families unless they take on other jobs.
For instance, a living wage for a single adult in Victoria County, Texas, where the lawsuit was filed, is $13.53, according to MIT’s living wage calculator. That jumps to $27.56 for an adult with one child. The county, whose largest employer is a public school district, is 125 miles southwest of Houston.
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