Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation Friday that would require billion-dollar companies to pay their employees a minimum of $15 per hour.
“For decades, the wages of everyday, working Americans have remained stagnant while monopoly corporations have consolidated industry after industry, securing record profits for CEOs and investment bankers,” Hawley said in a statement.
“Mega-corporations can afford to pay their workers $15 an hour, and it’s long past time they do so, but this should not come at the expense of small businesses already struggling to make it.”
Today I’m introducing legislation to increase the minimum wage for big business – Senate should take an up or down vote on it https://t.co/CHe2QGemSh
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 26, 2021
Hawley’s plan would require that corporations with revenues more than $1 billion pay $15 an hour and then be “indexed” to the federal median wage after 2025, according to the press release.
Hawley says this legislation avoids a “one-size-fits-all increase that would disadvantage small businesses.”
To make up for employees of small businesses whose wages are low, Hawley introduced the Blue-Collar Bonus, which would give workers a bonus through an “automatic, advance able tax credit tied to hours worked.” (RELATED: White House: ‘Biden Is Disappointed’ $15 Minimum Wage Won’t Be Included In Stimulus Package)
The credit is 50% of the difference between the median wage, which would be set at $16.50, and the worker’s hourly rate. For example, if an employee makes $12 per hour, they would receive a $2.25 per hour credit for a maximum of 40 hours per week, according to Hawley. The worker would be eligible for a credit of $4,680 for the taxable year and would receive four payments from the IRS, according to Hawley.
Democrats have been pushing for a minimum wage hike that would raise the federal hourly rate to $15 per hour. Democrats wanted the wage hike to be included in the new coronavirus relief package, but Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough decided Thursday that the wage hike could not be included in the $1.9 trillion relief plan.
The wage hike would cost 1.4 million jobs, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The “Raise the Wage Act,” which is now a standalone bill, would also raise budget deficits by $58 billion, according to the analysis.
While a majority of Americans were found to support the wage hike when asked flat out about the policy with no other information, small businesses worry the policy would cripple them.
“If your goal is to shut down independently owned mom and pop shops on Main Street and grow the market share of big-box megastores then I can think of nothing better than passing a federal $15 minimum wage, because it will devastate small businesses,” Jeff Brabant, the manager of government relations for the National Federation of Independent Businesses’ told the Daily Caller News Foundation.