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By 2020, this bill aims raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour — gradually. Starting either on January 1, 2016, or three months after the bill is passed (whichever is later), the federal minimum wage would go up to $8 an hour. Each year, it would go up a dollar an hour, until it reached $12.

The federal minimum wage since July 2009 has been $7.25 an hour — though some states have higher minimum wages and worker protections that employers in those states have to comply with.

After the federal minimum wage reaches $12 an hour under this bill, the Secretary of Labor would have to set the minimum wage, as calculated by data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new minimum wage would be indexed to the median wage, and couldn't be set less than the previous minimum wages.

Perhaps even more notably, this bill would phase out tipped minimum wages. Set at $2.13 an hour at the federal level, tipped minimum wages assume that if you earn tips on the job, you'll make up the regular minimum wage difference. This bill would raise the tipped minimum to $3.15 at the same time as the regular wage goes up. That wage would then be raised by either $1.05 or however much it had to go up by the equal regular minimum wage, whichever was lesser.

","official_title":"A bill to provide for increases in the Federal minimum wage.","short_title":"Raise the Wage Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Raise the Wage Act\n\nThis bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to increase the federal minimum wage for employees to: (1) $8.00 an hour on January 1, 2016, or, if later, on the first day of the third month after enactment of this Act; (2) $9.00 an hour after one year; (3) $10.00 an hour after two years; (4) $11.00 an hour after three years; (5) $12.00 an hour after four years; and (6) the amount the Secretary of Labor determines (based on increases in the median hourly wage of all employees) after five years, and annually thereafter.\n\nThe federal minimum wage for tipped employees shall increase to $3.15 an hour for one year on January 1, 2016, or the first day of the third month after enactment of this Act, whichever is later. Subsequent annual adjustments of the wage increase, according to a specified formula, shall ensure that it remains equal to the wage in effect under FLSA for other employees.\n\nEmployers must notify their employees of the right to retain any recei...","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO estimate is unavailable. ","impact":"People working minimum wage and tipped minimum wage jobs, their families, employers that pay the minimum wage, the Secretary of Labor, people that buy things sold or made by people that earn minimum wage. ","argument_for":"It's impossible to live on the current minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) — it's an insult to those who work the jobs that lay the foundation of the country. If we want society to be functional, we have to make sure that all people make enough to survive. ","argument_against":"Minimum wage jobs pay the minimum because they require little to no formal training. 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Is it Time to (Gradually) Raise the Minimum Wage to $12?