President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour as companies struggle to find workers.
During an event in Ohio on Thursday, Biden said, “We’re seeing what happens when employers have to compete for workers. Companies like McDonald’s, Home Depot, Bank of America, and others, what do they have to do? They have to raise wages to attract workers. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
“Congress should raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. No one. No one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty level,” he added.
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As the economy recovers, businesses are struggling to find workers which has led to the fastest wage increases since the 1990s.
Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. equity strategist at Credit Suisse said, “The economy is overheating and companies, even though we have a high unemployment rate, cannot get the labor they need to meet demand and they are being forced to raise wages.”
“It’s happening with financial services. It’s happening in industry. It’s happening in retail. You’re seeing it everywhere,” he added.
Biden has previously expressed support for raising the minimum wage, as IJR reported.
“I do think that we should have a minimum wage, stand by itself, $15 an hour,” he said during an interview with CBS News earlier this year. “No one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty wage. And if you’re making less than $15 an hour, you’re living below the poverty wage.”
While Biden has argued wages should be higher, a study from the Congressional Budget Office found that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would lead to 1.4 million job losses by June 2025 and add $54 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years.