Backlash as Biden backtracks on $15 per hour wage promise
Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Chicago
In his very first campaign speech to win the presidential election, Joe Biden promised to more than double the federal minimum wage from just over $7 an hour to a “minimum of $15” per hour.
However, the ruling Democratic Party has retracted the wage increase from the third fiscal stimulus negotiations, disappointing 30 million low-wage workers in the middle of a once-in-a-century economic crisis.
There is a whopping 75% public approval rating for Biden’s stimulus plan, but those polls came out before many details were released. Biden has since dropped support for many economic promises he made in his campaign.
After just one month in office, Biden has so far backtracked on his promises for major student debt relief, the amount and length of unemployment payments, the total amount of household stimulus checks and he has made no mention of reversing Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts for the rich, something that Biden promised to initiate on his very first day in office.
Opposition to a wage increase is based on the notion that it would hurt small businesses. However, countless economists insist that a wage increase would stimulate the economy overall by giving workers more money to spend, thus creating jobs and badly-needed growth.
The so-called “fight for $15” began shortly after 2009, which is the last year the federal minimum wage was increased. But a decade later, studies show that constant inflation means that $15 per hour in 2021 would not constitute a living wage for a single adult household in any state. The study said in the cheapest metropolitan areas $20 per hour is now required, while major cities would need $ 25 per hour.
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