The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to approve a bill that will raise the federal minimum wage to 15 U.S. dollars per hour by 2025, but the Senate, where the Republicans hold the majority, is expected to abort the legislation.
The Raise the Wage Act, which was passed in the House in a 231-199 mostly party-line vote, will more than double the current minimum wage of 7.25 dollars per hour. That amount has not changed since 2009.
The legislation, however, is doomed to be rejected by the Senate, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will not even take it up on the Senate floor.
"Research shows that hiking the minimum wage to $15 would kill jobs and depress the economy at a time when it's thriving for the American people," McConnell, a Republican from the U.S. state of Kentucky, tweeted Thursday. "We are not going to be taking that up in the Senate."
Even within the Democratic Party, the bill's passage in the House was a result of compromise between progressives and moderates.
While the liberals won the nationwide implementation of the 15-dollar minimum wage, the centrists successfully extended the time period for achieving the goal from five years to six years. Meanwhile, an amendment of the legislation requires that the economic impact of the wage hike be studied.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan budget watchdog, said earlier this month in a report that lifting the minimum wage to 15 dollars by 2025 will boost pay for 17 million workers, but will cut 1.3 million jobs.
