This page contains bill sponsorships in the Senate and House. Bill sponsorships indicate the topics that legislators are most interested in, and spend the most time on.

15_H122 on Jan 6, 2015

1. The federal minimum wage should be adjusted every four years so that a person working for it may earn, as a minimum, an annual income at least 15% higher than the federal poverty threshold for a family of four;
2. it should be set at a level high enough to allow two full-time minimum wage workers to earn an income above the national housing wage; and
3. Congress, or any local or state government, may establish a higher minimum wage.

Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (Time magazine, 9/5/13): The Washington DC council sent a bill to the mayor's desk that would require large retailers like Walmart and Target to pay its workers a "living wage" of $12.50 per hour--significantly higher than the District's $8.25 per hour minimum wage. Here are common misunderstandings about the DC bill and minimum wage laws in general:

• Myth 1: "Living Wage Bills help all workers." The DC law exempts retailers with stores smaller than 75,000 square feet and less than $1 billion in sales, so it doesn't help many workers in small and medium sized businesses. The size requirement has the effect of protecting giant retailers that happen to do business in relatively small stores like Nike and Apple.
• Myth 2: "High minimum wages reduce employment." Standard economic theory says that if you raise the minimum wage, businesses will hire fewer workers. But over the past decade, San Francisco has instituted a minimum-wage requirement that rises with inflation, currently $10.55. These laws have not reduced employment; instead, businesses seem to have merely adjusted their models by training workers and retaining them longer.
• Myth 3: "Inflation has shrunk the minimum wage." Advocates point out the minimum wage, when adjusted for inflation, has actually fallen to $7.25 today from the equivalent (in today's dollars) of $10.70 in 1968. But the earned income tax credit has more than made up for that decline. Also see equivalent House bill H.R.1010 (2014).
  Updated to include 2017 version, H.R.122

  Updated with H.R.122 - Original Living Wage Act of 2017

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  Participating counts on VoteMatch question 20. Question 20: Stimulus better than market-led recovery Scores: -2=Strongly oppose; -1=Oppose; 0=neutral; 1=Support; 2=Strongly support.
  • Topic: Jobs
  • Headline: Raise minimum wage to 15% above poverty level (Score: 1)
  • Headline 2: Raise minimum wage to 15% above poverty level (Score: 2)
    
    Participating counts on AmericansElect question 1.
  • Headline: Raise minimum wage to 15% above poverty level (Answer: C)
  • Headline 2: Raise minimum wage to 15% above poverty level (Answer: D)
  • AmericansElect Quiz Question 1 on Economy: When you think about the US budget deficit, which of the following solutions is closest to your opinion?
    • A: Cutting existing programs
    • B: More spending cuts than tax increases (mix of both solutions)
    • C: More tax increases than spending cuts (mix of both solutions)
    • D: Raising Taxes
    • E: Unsure
    
    
    
  • Key for participation codes:
  • Sponsorships: p=sponsored; o=co-sponsored; s=signed
  • Memberships: c=chair; m=member; e=endorsed; f=profiled; s=scored
  • Resolutions: i=introduced; w=wrote; a=adopted
  • Cases: w=wrote; j=joined; d=dissented; c=concurred
  • Surveys: '+' supports; '-' opposes.
  
  
  

  Democrats participating in 15_H122
  Corrine Brown	s1o	Florida Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  G.K. Butterfield	s1o	North Carolina Democrat	Jan 8, 2015
  Yvette Clarke	s1o	New York Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  William Lacy Clay	s1o	Missouri Democrat	Jan 13, 2015
  Emmanuel Cleaver	s1o	Missouri Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  James Clyburn	s1o	South Carolina Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Steve Cohen	s1o	Tennessee Democrat	Aug 4, 2017
  John Conyers	s1o	Michigan Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Elijah Cummings	s1o	Maryland Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Marcia Fudge	s1o	Ohio Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Al Green	s2p	Texas Democrat
  Mike Honda	s1o	California Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Sheila Jackson Lee	s1o	Texas Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Hakeem Jeffries	s1o	New York Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Eddie Bernice Johnson	s1o	Texas Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Barbara Lee	s1o	California Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  John Lewis	s1o	Georgia Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Gwen Moore	s1o	Wisconsin Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Eleanor Holmes Norton	s1o	District of Columbia Democrat	Jan 6, 2015
  Jamie Raskin	s1o	Maryland Democrat	Jul 24, 2017
  Marc Veasey	s1o	Texas Democrat	Jan 6, 2015

  
  
  

  Republicans participating in 15_H122

  
  
  

  Independents participating in 15_H122

  
  
  

  Total recorded by OnTheIssues:

  Democrats: 21 Republicans: 0 Independents: 0