Congressman Johnson signs onto bill raising minimum wage

Cosponsors legislation with Democrats in House, Senate to raise the federal minimum wage to $12.00 by the year 2020, eliminate the subminimum tipped wage system and ensure the wage rises in keeping with the growth of median wages.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04) is helping to lead the fight to give hard-working Americans a long-overdue wage increase by raising the federal minimum wage. This week, Rep. Johnson signed on as an original cosponsor of the Raise the Wage Act to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $12.00 by 2020. The bill, introduced in both the House and Senate, would also gradually eliminate the subminimum tipped wage system and index the federal minimum wage to keep pace with the rising median wage.

“I’m proud to stand with the hard-working Americans in my district and across the country to advocate for an increase in pay,” Rep. Johnson said. “We’ve said it before: ‘no one who works full time should have to live in poverty.’ The Raise the Wage Act simply means that those who work hard would earn enough to get them above the poverty line.”

In 2007, the Democratic-led Congress enacted a law phasing in an increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25. Since the minimum wage reached $7.25 six years ago in 2009, the minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation or the growth in the median wage, resulting in low-wage workers continuing to fall behind. In fact, the real value of today’s minimum wage is less than it was in 1956.

Under the Raise the Wage Act, the federal minimum wage would start to rise almost immediately. Beginning January 2016 or three months after the date of enactment of the Raise the Wage Act, the federal minimum wage would increase by $0.75 to $8.00 per hour, followed by $1.00 per hour increases every year until it reaches $12.00. Starting in 2021, the federal minimum wage would keep pace with rising wages overall through automatic annual increases to keep the ratio of the minimum wage constant with the median wage.

“As we work to address increasing wage inequality in this country, the minimum wage bill would help narrow the growing gap in wages,” continued Rep. Johnson. “In Georgia alone, more than 1.2 million workers stand to benefit from a raise in the wage. Money in the pockets of working families can mean more money spent in local stores and in local economies.”

Rep. Johnson called on congressional Republicans to finally join with Democrats and cosponsor the Raise the Wage Act. In the last Congress, Republicans voted eight times to block attempts to raise the wage over the two-year session, making the American people work harder for less.

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