WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Congressional Democrats will begin a push on Thursday to raise the U.S. minimum wage to $12 an hour, an increase of $4.75 over where it is now.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia will introduce the legislation Thursday.
The U.S. minimum wage is now $7.25 an hour, an amount that hasn’t changed since 2009.
President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have backed raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. That effort, however, has sputtered in the face of resistance from Republicans.
Obama has acted by executive order to set a $10.10 minimum wage for federal contract workers.
The proposal from Murray and Scott would raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. They estimate the legislation would raise the pay of nearly 38 million American workers. Republicans are unlikely to support the effort, especially with elections looming in 2016.
Murray is the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Scott has the same role on the House Education and the Workforce panel.
In last year’s midterm elections, voters in five states — Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota — backed measures calling for raising those states’ minimum wages. And companies including Target Corp., TGT, -3.24% Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT, -1.54% and TJX Cos. TJX, -1.06% have announced wage increases.
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