Republican Senator Co-Sponsors Bill To Raise The Minimum Wage To $15

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri proposed a bill Tuesday that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, his latest move to frame himself as a new kind of pro-worker Republican.

Hawley’s legislation is not in any danger of actually becoming law — his fellow Republicans hold a majority in the Senate and have been blocking minimum wage increases for years. But the proposal aligns him with a core Democratic demand and further separates Hawley from the traditional anti-union, free-market wing of the GOP when it comes to labor policy.

“Right now, working families, I mean, they haven’t gotten a real wage raise in years, and they can’t afford anything,” Hawley told HuffPost. “Right now, the federal minimum wage, if you index it for inflation, or relative to inflation, it’s the lowest level since the 1940s.”

The federal minimum is just $7.25 per hour and hasn’t been raised in more than 15 years, by far the longest such stretch since it was created during the Great Depression. It prevails in the 21 states that currently don’t mandate a higher one, many of them clustered in the South. 

Hawley’s bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, would raise the wage floor to $15, then tie it to an inflation index so that it goes up with the cost of living — a common feature in more progressive legislation. Such a hike would force increases in all but the mostly blue states where the wage floor has already been raised above that level.

Hawley did not pretend that his proposal stands much chance of becoming law. “I will try to move it. I mean, I’d love to get a vote on it,” he said. 

The proposal puts Hawley far ahead of other Republicans, but still behind Democrats on the issue. Most Democratic lawmakers are now pushing for a $17 minimum wage, arguing that $15 — the rallying cry of the Fight for $15 labor campaign, which began in the fast food industry in 2012 — has become inadequate as a living wage due to inflation.

Although he supports a more aggressive raise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) seemed pleased to see Hawley separate himself from other Republicans on the issue.

“I think every Democrat, last month, voted to raise the minimum wage to $17, and I’ll look forward to working with Sen. Hawley,” Sanders told HuffPost on Tuesday, referencing an April vote on an amendment to a symbolic budget resolution. The amendment failed by a vote of 47 to 52 with every Republican except Hawley voting no. 

Hawley said that if the Republican Party wants to brand itself as the party of working people — which it does, according to statements from President Donald Trump and other leaders — then Republicans need to back policies that benefit the working class. 

“This is what President Trump ran on. I mean, if we’re going to be a working party, we have to do something for working people, and working people haven’t gotten a raise in years,” Hawley said.

Hawley is not the first Republican to back a minimum wage increase. Back in 2021, Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) and then-Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) proposed a boost from $7.25 to $10. But the bill included an immigration measure that would have mandated nationwide use of e-Verify to crack down on undocumented workers, a poison pill for Democrats that isn’t part of Hawley’s legislation.

Earlier this year, Hawley released a policy platform dubbed a “Pro-Worker Framework.” It included some pro-labor reforms typically associated with Democrats, like putting limits on mandatory “captive audience” meetings, in which employers pressure workers not to form unions. 

Then, in March, he joined Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) in proposing a bill that would speed up the process for workers to secure their first union contracts, the sort of legislation a typical Republican wouldn’t go near.

As with Vice-President J.D. Vance, Hawley’s positioning himself as a populist, pro-worker conservative has drawn plenty of suspicion from progressives who fear it’s a ploy to further drain the Democratic Party’s working-class support. But when it comes to maybe moving legislation, lawmakers like Sanders like the idea of having a Republican to work with. 

“It would be great if we could get some other Republicans,” the Vermont senator said. “$7.25 federal minimum wage is a national disgrace. We’ve got to raise it.”