Summary: Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) recently announced their plan to introduce a bill that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. The bill would also phase out the subminimum wages for tipped workers and workers with disabilities and the training wage for teenagers. Heidi Shierholz joins Jared and Ben to discuss the characteristics of the workers who would benefit from the increase, how we know the arguments of minimum wage opponents are off base, and why this bill deserves our support. Selected characteristics of workers who would benefit from the Raise the Wage Act of 2017 (see http://www.epi.org/publication/15-by-2024-would-lift-wages-for-41-million/ for more details): - 90 percent are 20 or older; their average age is 36 - 56 percent are women - A disproportionate percentage are people of color (17 percent are Black, 23 percent are Hispanic, and 7 percent are Asian or another race or ethnicity) - 82 percent have a high school degree and 13 percent have a college degree - 63 percent are full-time workers - 55 percent come from families whose incomes are below $50,000 - Those living with either a spouse and/or children in the home provide an average of 64 percent of their families’ incomes - Collectively, they are the parents of nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of all the children in the United States Musical Interlude: “Never Will I Marry” by Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID4KwH2GK-8
