Category: Minimum Wage

Late today, the Senate passed its version of a minimum wage increase 94-3. Unlike the House bill, the Senate version includes tax giveaways to business, and it\’s unclear what happens next. (Who are the three winners of the Deepest Hatred of Workers Award? Bob Geiger reports: Sens. Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint.) Both…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held a conference call with bloggers earlier this afternoon. I asked him where the minimum wage bill will go after this week\’s expected approval of a version including business tax breaks. Yesterday\’s NY Times said that the Senate bill either will go to a House-Senate conference, where it can be…

Today, the NY Times checks in on the minimum wage battle, and we may be seeing a little movement towards a push for a clean bill without business tax giveaways. The piece notes that after the Senate passes its bill with such tax favors, two different procedural things could happen: \”the Senate could hold on…

Yesterday, Bob Geiger and the AFL-CIO Blog broke the story that 28 conservative Senators tried to outright eliminate the federal minimum wage. Immediately, the blogosphere reacted in shock, at both the raw cruelty and the political inanity. TomPaine.com labelled the whole lot, \”The Senate Anti-Worker Caucus,\” fundamentally out of touch with the electorate, since \”Voters…

Yesterday, Bob Geiger and the AFL-CIO Blog broke the story that 28 conservative Senators tried to outright eliminate the federal minimum wage. Immediately, the blogosphere reacted in shock, at both the raw cruelty and the political inanity. TomPaine.com labelled the whole lot, \”The Senate Anti-Worker Caucus,\” fundamentally out of touch with the electorate, since \”Voters…

The contempt some Senate conservatives have for America\’s workers runs pretty deep. Filibustering a raise in the minimum wage wasn\’t enough for 28 Senators. Today, they tried to finish the job and completely abolish the federal minimum wage. Bob Geiger and the AFL-CIO Weblog have the details. Most cowardly, they weren\’t even honest with America\’s…

Yesterday, 43 Senate conservatives did the bidding of the business lobby and filibustered the House minimum wage bill. Why? Because they want to attach irresponsible business tax breaks to the bill. They want to further the phony notion that even the tiniest raise in the minimum wage is a job killer that must be offset…

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus is still refusing to pass a \”clean\” minimum wage bill without business tax giveaways. But now he\’s looking to make a slight improvement to his dirty bill: paying for the revenue loss of wider business loopholes, by closing different business loopholes. The Washington Post reports that the committee will…

Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus is firmly establishing himself as the buzzkill of The First 100 Hours. After dirtying up a minimum wage bill with special interest tax breaks, now he\’s undermining Dem efforts to pass a bill requiring Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. Instead, he wants a bill that merely allows it,…

Bill Scher blogs for Campaign for America\’s Future. This blog originally appeared in The Huffington Post. Yesterday was a great day for the American worker and the American economy, as the House passed a long overdue raise in the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. The bill is particularly strong because it\’s \”clean.\” It rejects the notion…