Biden’s Minimum Wage Plan is Insulting.
$15 an hour by 2026 barely touches the problem.
Lauren Elizabeth
Lauren Elizabeth
Jan 23 · 3 min read
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For years, the fight for a higher minimum wage has been high on the list of priorities for those of us who count ourselves among the left here in the United States. Considering the fact that it hasn’t been raised at the federal level since 2009, there’s no denying the time has long passed for the people to have their paychecks reflect what their labor is worth. While he certainly did not make it a staple of his campaign and more or less relied on Bernie Sanders to bring it up, Joe Biden did in fact express his support for an increase to the minimum wage of $15 an hour. Unfortunately as to be expected, his recent plans for the implementation of the minimum wage increase have already proven themselves to be too little to late.

Jordan Yadoo with The Washington Post recently reported that Biden intends to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. Not only that, but the plan was described as an “opening bid”, which is nothing more than a polite way of saying he’s willing to prolong it even further.

While of course I support increasing the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour, it’s certainly worth noting that even right now, the fight for a minimum wage increase has been going on for so long that’s not even considered enough right now, let alone 2026. Back in 2017, Matthew Michaels with Business Insider addressed how if the federal minimum wage had kept pace with economic growth, minimum wage — now almost four years ago — would have been $19.33.

To be clear, I know the problem extends far beyond just Joe Biden and his own personal lackluster plans. Even some of the most progressive people in congress haven’t fully addressed the fact that we’re reaching the point where the “fight for $15” is no longer enough. I was never under the impression that there would be $15 an hour overnight, but at the very least any lawmaker remotely in touch with the needs of the American people, and how increasingly difficult it has been for working class people to be able to support themselves should understand that $15 an hour is a stepping stone at this point. The idea that we wouldn’t get there under Joe Biden’s plan until 2026 at best is a fairly clear indication that Joe Biden and his fellow corporate Democrats are fundamentally ill-prepared or arguably unwilling to address this problem.

Personally, it’s the “opening bid” aspect of this plan that troubles me the most. For the life of me I cannot understand why Joe Biden is even attempting to put this on the table with Republican lawmakers, many of whom — Ted Cruz for example — don’t even believe in the concept of a minimum wage. At his core, it’s apparent to anyone who follows politics that Joe Biden has a need to reach out to the opposition, for nothing more than to be able to say he’s able to work with them even at the expense of the people. Already it seems, we’re getting a glimpse of where that’s going to lead us over the course of the next four years.
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