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Sen. Brown Says Hike In Minimum Wage Is ‘Long Overdue’

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Statehouse News Bureau) — President Joe Biden has said he doesn’t think an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour will pass in the latest COVID relief bill. But Ohio’s Democratic U.S. Senator says it needs to be passed somehow because it’s long overdue.

Sen. Sherrod Brown gives his victory speech at the Ohio Democrats 2018 Midterm Election Night Watch Party at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio on November 6, 2018.
Sen. Sherrod Brown gives his victory speech at the Ohio Democrats 2018 Midterm Election Night Watch Party at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio on November 6, 2018. (Jordan Kelley | WOUB)

Sen. Sherrod Brown says the minimum wage hike is a popular idea.

“The support in the country is overwhelming. There have been ballot issues in conservative states like Florida where it, the minimum wage hike, has passed overwhelmingly. The resistance is special interest in Washington and Republican legislators,” Brown says.

The idea isn’t getting bipartisan support.

That means majority Democrats will have to pass the COVID relief bill through the budget reconciliation process, and there is debate over whether a hike in the federal minimum wage can be passed that way.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 hasn’t increased since 2009. Ohio’s minimum wage for non-tipped employees is $8.80 an hour.