$11.00 an hour or $15.00 an hour; That is the Question

Photo from Boston University

The Federal Minimum Wage needs to be increased.

States like Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania (surprising,) South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia (again surprising,) Wisconsin (ouch, one of the birthplaces of Progressivism,)  and Wyoming all subscribe to the current federal minimum wage which has not increased since 2010.

Other states like Delaware, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, and West Virginia pay less than $10.00 an hour.

Even while accounting for the cost of living differences across the country, it is fair to say that most people in the United States can not live on making less than $10.00 an hour.

Joe Biden and most Democrats would like to include an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15.00 an hour in the American Rescue Plan.

If such an increase passed and was phased in over five years, people would finally receive a living wage (just in time to consider the next annual cost of living adjustment.)

Whether it is permissible to include the wage increase in a budget reconciliation bill is still being debated with one former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid saying Kamala Harris, as the President of the Senate, could overrule the finding of the Senate Parliamentarian, another obstacle to raising the minimum wage to $15.00 has come from, wait for him, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. 

When asked on February 2, 2021, about raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour, Senator Manchin said:

"No, I'm not. I'm supportive of basically having something that's responsible and reasonable."

Responsible and reasonable to Manchin appears to be an increase to $11.00 an hour which is where the West Virginia Senator says his state should be.

While it is a $4.00 an hour difference, President Biden and the other Democrats should follow the advice of Washington Post Columnist Paul Waldman who wrote:

"...And if that’s what could pass Congress, Biden should agree to it in a heartbeat. Especially if it can be part of a larger rescue package.

We can argue about whether $11 is sufficient, but one thing we ought to be able to agree on is that $11 is much better than $7.25. For an individual working full-time, it would amount to approximately an extra $7,500 a year before taxes, which for someone making that little could be the difference between paying the rent and getting evicted.

And we know Biden loves to deal — he adopted the $15 minimum as a goal, but he’s a practical politician who’d always rather take half a loaf than nothing at all..."

Let's be honest. $11.00 an hour is probably not enough of an hourly wage for people in some states (think California or New York) or cities (think Seattle or Phoenix) to live on. Arizona's minimum wage is even better at $12.10. However, in other states, it may be fine depending on the cost of living levels.

That said, perhaps millions of people  will still be lifted out of poverty if you combine the Manchin minimum wage with the increases in nutritional aid and the child and earned income tax credits (temporary in the current bill but would probably become permanent in later legislation.)

As Waldman says, it is better than $7.25 and if reducing the minimum wage increase to $11.00 an hour so the entire American Rescue Plan passes through the reconciliation route, then pass it and get it done for the good of the country and the American People.