NELP’s Christine Owens introduces Sen. Murrary at a press conference to announce the Raise the Wage Act. The Raise the Wage Act of 2015 would raise the federal minimum wage from the current rate of $7.25 to $8.00 an hour the first year, and then by $1.00 a year over the next four years. It would set automatic increases starting in 2021 to keep pace with rising wages overall (i.e., by maintaining a constant ratio with the median wage). The legislation also would gradually phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers, which has been frozen at $2.13 since 1991.
