Reed, Whitehouse join Bernie Sanders on minimum wage hike bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WLNE) — Rhode Island’s senators have joined with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on a bill that would raise the minimum wage for the first time in over 15 years.

Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse said they endorse raising the minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2030.

The leaders point out minimum wage was last raised to $7.25 in July of 2009.

The two are working with Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the “Raise the Wage Act.”

In a statement, Senator Sanders said:

In the year 2025, a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, we can no longer tolerate millions of workers trying to survive on just $10 or $12 an hour.

All three senators noted, if the minimum wage kept up with worker productivity over the last 57 years, it would average over $23 an hour.