The Dream of Fifteen

The Dream of Fifteen: How a Progressive Idea Is Paving Its Way Into the Forefront of American Policy

President Biden signed a massive $1.9-trillion coronavirus relief package into law on March 11, 2021, after widespread debate between the U.S. House & Senate as to what components of the bill should make the final cut. A key proposal in President Biden’s initial plan included a federal minimum wage increase of $15 an hour, but it was struck down in a vote on March 5, 2020, with seven Democratic Senators and Independent Senator Angus King voting against the measure. 

The push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour did not begin with President Biden’s relief plan, and it won’t end with it either. Progressive lawmakers have long advocated for an increase in pay for low-wage workers, citing that anything under $15 is not a livable wage for any American, let alone one who is trying to support a family on a single-income. With 65% of the population supporting an increase in the minimum wage, questions have been raised about why this measure would be voted out of the final relief package, especially by Democratic Senators. Some Democrats are advocating for something closer to $11.

“The simple fact of the matter is that $15 as the minimum wage is just barely a living wage,” said Pete D’Alessandro, the Iowa director for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and 2018 candidate for U.S. House District 3. “And to have people that are working 40 hours a week not be able to sustain even a basic dignity in terms of their day-to-day is absolutely wrong. When [companies] are paying their employees less than $15 an hour, most of their workers are still receiving government benefits, whether it’s childcare, whether it’s food stamps... $15 is the low point, and there shouldn’t be any negotiations lower than that.”

The next step for Congressional proponents of the wage increase is an attempt to use reconciliation, a budget process that would let Democrats bypass the 60-vote legislative filibuster. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will be responsible for drafting a resolution in the coming weeks that will cater to this idea.

“We need to include [the $15 minimum wage] with a bigger package so that lawmakers have to vote up or down on the full package, and we would do that if there is a vote on reconciliation,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Ca.), an avid supporter of the $15 minimum wage said. “We have the power to make it part of the reconciliation… but it’s going to require Republican votes, and I am going to lead the charge on that.”

It has been over 11 years since the last time the federal minimum wage was raised, and many feel that another wage increase is long overdue. In 2012, the “Fight For $15” movement popularized the concept of $15 being the minimum hourly rate for workers. Since then, seven states have passed legislation to phase in a $15 minimum wage in certain cities, including New York, California and Washington. This “magic number,” made popular by Progressive Democrats and grassroots campaigns, has caused controversy in both the political and economic realm. 

In a 2015 survey conducted by the UNH Survey Center, nearly three-quarters of U.S. based economists opposed a federal wage of $15, citing that the measure will have negative effects on youth employment levels, adult employment levels, and the number of jobs available. Additionally, 7 out of 10 economists believed that small businesses with fewer than 50 employees would struggle to keep their business afloat. A majority of the economists polled in the survey self-identified as Democrats.

The push to raise the minimum wage to $15 or more is not the only measure that stands at the top of the Progressive agenda. Recent years have seen an increase in discussion surrounding substantial reform to America’s healthcare, higher education, environmental and social justice systems. Medicare For All, a Green New Deal, Debt-Free Public College, and Police Reform have paved the way into the forefront of political dialogue, and the rise of the Progressive movement has grown significantly among both candidates for office and the general public. Despite these policies still being considered controversial among many, more and more people are beginning to open up to them— particularly when Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for President in early 2015 and brought with him a set of policy ideas that had rarely been given a second thought in the public eye until then.

“[The Progressive movement] has always been there,” D’Alessandro said. “But there were things that kept it from taking off… I used to say this about being on the Bernie Sanders campaign. He didn’t invent these ideals, they were there waiting for someone like him. For generations, a lot of those things hadn’t been talked about. If you look at 1968, that was kind of the high-water mark of Progressive politics, where [Progressive candidates] were running for office and lost in 1972 in the general election. Democrats took the loss as, ‘Well, we’re not going to run any more Progressives.’ And so for a generation, they ran Moderates… And once moderates were in office, they didn’t push them on anything. But this generation is not going to sit back and let that happen.”

President Biden signing the COVID relief bill isn’t an end-all cure for the economic and social devastation that Americans have faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is clear to the majority of the population that there is still substantial work needed to be done to help offset the burden. What exact policies need to be implemented, however, will be under intense debate for the foreseeable future— and if there is one thing to be said about Progressives, it is that their consistency on the issues doesn’t seem to waiver with time and circumstance.

“People realize that so much of the country has been left behind,” Rep. Khanna (D-Ca.) said. “So much of the country has not had economic dignity or a great economic future… And that means that the minimum that we ought to give people is good healthcare, people shouldn’t be dying because they don’t have access to it. And it means that the minimum that we should give to people is good education, from the day they were born to some form of higher education or vocational training. And it means at the very least people should be paid fairly for their work, not being paid starvation wages. It means that we should care about our environment and take measures to not ruin the planet for future generations. These are common sense ideas, and I believe the pandemic has made us more empathetic, more aware of the suffering of our fellow Americans.”