Ruben Gallego Introduces Bill For $20 Minimum Wage | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON – A Democratic senator launched a invoice Thursday to boost the federal minimal wage to $20 per hour by 2029, setting a brand new benchmark for progressives hoping to hike the wage ground.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) informed HuffPost he believes President Donald Trump’s populist discuss on financial points might present a gap for actual negotiations, although most Republicans have resisted a rise for the previous 15 years. Democrats, he mentioned, ought to at the least be “throwing it out there.”

“You’re seeing a lot of kind of populist moves by this president that sometimes we could end up finding ourselves in alignment,” Gallego mentioned. “Who knows, maybe there is an opportunity for us to have some movement.”

It’s a becoming for Gallego to stake out a daring place on the minimal wage — he ran for Senate partly in response to his predecessor, former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), voting in opposition to a $15 per hour minimal wage with a thumbs-down flourish in 2021.

Unless Trump have been to embrace the next minimal wage this yr, there’s no probability the Republican-controlled House or Senate would approve one. Congress hasn’t handed laws to boost the federal minimal wage since 2007, beneath then-President George W. Bush. Former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden pushed for will increase however have been stymied by GOP opposition.

The federal minimal wage stays simply $7.25 per hour – the wage equal of $15,000 per yr – and prevails in any state that doesn’t mandate the next one. Higher state-based minimal wages and inflation lately have decreased the relevance of the federal ground, with solely about 1.1% of employees making the federal minimal in 2024, the final yr for which knowledge is obtainable.

Gallego mentioned it’s good to stake out an aggressive place on the minimal wage not solely to draw voters involved about affordability, however to ensure Democrats are able to act in the event that they management Congress subsequent yr.

“We’re going to be in a better situation as a country, I think, next year, potentially even with us now taking back the Senate,” he mentioned. “And if that’s the case, then this should be one of our core tenets as a caucus.”

Last yr, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and dozens of Democrats co-sponsored laws to boost the federal minimal wage to $17 per hour. With his proposal for a $20 wage ground, Gallego has seemingly leapfrogged the main progressive in Congress.

As for Trump, he has already shattered Republican orthodoxy on free commerce, and in an effort to reply to affordability issues, he’s pushed for looser financial coverage and a cap on bank card rates of interest. But he hasn’t proven a lot curiosity within the minimal wage throughout his second time period, besides to decrease it for federal contractors. He has flip-flopped repeatedly on the problem over time, at occasions signaling openness to elevating it, solely to reverse himself.

“Well, I would leave it and raise it somewhat,” Trump informed Bill O’Reilly in 2016, contradicting himself in the exact same sentence.

It’s in all probability not a coincidence that Gallego is among the many Democratic officeholders attempting to face out at a time when there’s no clear standard-bearer for the get together forward of the 2028 presidential election. Gallego declined to say if he’s operating for president.

“What we are focused on between now and 2026 is making sure that we’re putting the Democrats on the right path for victory,” he mentioned. “We can’t lose sight of why we lost the [2024] election. We are out of alignment [with] where the voters are. Voters care about standard of living, cost of living, immigration, immigration enforcement, border security.”