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House Armed Services Committee member Ro Khanna argues the current minimum wage of $7.25 is not something Americans can survive on and a hike would improve productivity in the workforce.

Progressives Friday pushed for a $15 minimum wage, saying Democrats owe theirconstituentsa living wage this year, and if they don't deliver, it could cost them at the ballot box in 2022.

"We need to pass a $15 minimum wageby the end of the year, [and] it has to be part of must-pass legislation," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

Khanna organized a press call Friday with many progressiveDemocratic lawmakers, union leaders and activists who demandedthe $15 minimum wage despite setbacks earlier this year.

The wage increase passed the House in February as part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, but the minimum wage provision was stripped out in the Senate due to parliamentary rules and lack of support from moderate Democrats.

PELOSI SAYS DEMS 'WILL PERSIST' ON $15 MINIMUM WAGE, DESPITE FAILURE TO GET IN COVID BILL

"The time is now," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib,D-Mich. "We have control of the House, the Senate [and] the presidency. My residents are tired of waiting. They cannot wait any longer for livable wages."

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., questions CDC Principal Deputy Secretary Dr. Anne Schuchat as she speaks before a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on lung disease and e-cigarettes on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/And

Raising the minimum wage to $15 would impact nearly 32 million workers, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. The majority -- or 59% -- of those who would benefit are women. The impact would be felt especially on women of color, who disproportionately work in low-wage jobs.

Activists saywomen, especially women of color, delivered the White House to President Biden and turned Georgia blue to give Democrats control of the Senate. Now they are counting on the wage increase for a lifeline, the Democrats say, after they've already been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

It's really important for us to recognize what the expectations of working people, particularly women and women of color are, and it's important for us to make sure that we're getting everything that we were promised,"saidRachel Carmona, executive director of the Women's March. "Because if we cant deliver a $15 minimum wage for women, then I'm not sure that women are going to deliver votes in 2022.

President Biden backs the $15 wage, but the challenge will be inthe Senate that is evenly split with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.

The progressives were preaching a whatever-it-takes approach to get the wage hike through, from overruling the Senate parliamentarian in the future or getting rid of the filibuster to require just a simple majority to advance legislation in the Senate.

BERNIE SANDERS AMENDMENT FOR $15 MINIMUM WAGE FAILS IN SENATE IN LONGEST VOTE IN HISTORY

Earlier in March, when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., forced a vote on whether towaive budget rules to insert the $15 minimum wage back into the coronavirus bill, he lost support from his own party.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., questions former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich., as she testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing to examine her nomination to be Secretary of Energy, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 on

The federal minimum wage has not increased in more than a decade, although a growing number of states have voted to adopt their own wage increases.

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Raising the minimum wagefrom $7.25 to$15 an hour by 2025 would cost the economy about 1.4 million jobs and would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, according to arecent analysisby the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

FOXBusiness'Megan Henney contributed to this report.

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Progressives aren't giving up fight for $15 minimum wage, say legislation must be passed this year - Fox Business

Stuart Applebaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), on Thursday said that Amazons claims that it is a progressive workplace are outrageous and tone deaf.

Hill.TVs Rising host Saagar Enjeti asked Applebaum what he made of a recent public spat between Rep. Mark PocanMark William PocanBattle heats up over Pentagon spending plans Overnight Defense: 50 House Democrats urge Biden to 'significantly' slash defense budget | Blinken, Austin put China on warning | Pentagon could extend Guard mission at border 50 House Democrats urge Biden to 'significantly' slash defense budget MORE (D-Ill.) and the Amazon News Twitter account.

The online squabble was sparked when Amazon's CEO of Worldwide Consumer Dave Clark tweeted, I often say we are the Bernie SandersBernie SandersOvernight Health Care: Senate confirms Levine for HHS, first openly transgender official | Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver | Former Operation Warp Speed chief fired over sexual harassment allegations Briahna Joy Gray: Progressives 'covering for the failures of the Biden administration' on minimum wage The Hill's Morning Report - Biden leans heavily into gun control MORE of employers, but thats not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace."

It's so outrageous, it's nonsense and it demonstrates how tone deaf Amazon is about what their own employees feel and think, Applebaum said. What Amazon is saying is, If we give people a $15 wage that gives us license to treat them any way we want to to disregard their health and safety to dehumanize them.

Applebaum argued that Amazon could not call itself a progressive workplace when taking into account its extraordinarily high turnover rate.

[Workers are] saying we can't take it no matter how much you pay us, he added.And let me also point out about pay ... that what Amazon pays is less than the median wage in Alabama, It's less than what workers get at other warehouses represented by the RWDSU in Alabama."

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Union president: Amazon's 'progressive workplace' claims are 'outrageous' and 'tone deaf' | TheHill - The Hill

"You know, it's like a gut punch to millions of people," Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus, said about the $15-an-hour minimum wage coming out of President Biden's COVID-19 relief package. But she says her vote will be based on the bill as a whole, even though it doesn't include the wage hike. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

"You know, it's like a gut punch to millions of people," Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus, said about the $15-an-hour minimum wage coming out of President Biden's COVID-19 relief package. But she says her vote will be based on the bill as a whole, even though it doesn't include the wage hike.

Updated at 11:20 a.m. ET

President Biden wasn't many progressives' first, second, third or maybe even 20th choice in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

But ever since winning the party's nomination last spring amid the onset of the global pandemic and economic downturn, Biden has vowed to govern as the most progressive president since Franklin Roosevelt. He's even made a large portrait of FDR the centerpiece of his Oval Office to underscore that goal.

Many progressive lawmakers and activists say they're largely pleased with the early weeks of Biden's presidency, and the open doors, phone lines and Zoom sessions they've been met with by the White House.

Progressives are "strong partners in everything we do in this White House," said Emmy Ruiz, Biden's director of political strategy and outreach. "We view them as critical and key partners in the White House. They're an important part of that broad coalition that elected Joe Biden."

"Understanding I'm grading on a curve it's not Bernie Sanders' agenda, and it's not Medicare For All, and it's not going to be a wealth tax. It's not going to be anything like that right now," said Faiz Shakir, an adviser and onetime campaign manager to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. "But in the areas where we can get the 50 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House and see how progressive we can be with it, well, I think we're getting near-best-possible outcomes."

Shakir played a role in urging Biden to record a video this week encouraging a unionization effort among Amazon warehouse employees in Alabama a step that went far beyond how previous Democratic presidents have engaged in specific labor disputes. It led to big cheers from progressive quarters.

But whether Biden should seek 50 or 60 Senate votes for his priorities is now the source of the most public rift yet between a president who built his reputation on compromise and working with Republicans, and the progressive base he's spent the past year courting and drafting policy with.

Biden made a $15-an-hour minimum wage a long-sought progressive goal a part of his $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan. The House included the increase in the version passed last week with a party-line vote. But the Senate's parliamentarian ruled the proposal doesn't fit within the narrow and complicated rules that govern the chamber's budget measures, which can pass on simple majorities, rather than the 60 votes needed for most other bills to advance.

California Rep. Ro Khanna has led a House Democratic effort to pressure Vice President Harris, who also serves as the president of the Senate, to overturn that ruling. Harris, Biden and Senate Democratic leaders have made it clear that isn't happening. So, as the Senate prepares to vote on the massive spending bill later this week, the measure won't include an agenda item progressives have rallied and organized around for years and that Biden campaigned on implementing.

The White House maintains that Biden is "deeply committed" to raising the minimum wage. "We were disappointed that the parliamentarian ruled against included minimum wage," said Ruiz. "What the president has said, and what we are all incredibly committed to, is finding other avenues and other lanes for accomplishing this goal of reaching an increase in the minimum wage."

But progressives like Khanna worry those other avenues will fall short. "If you're not going to pass this through reconciliation, how are we going to get a significant minimum wage increase?" he asked.

Many progressives were especially frustrated that Biden was already backing off the wage increase a couple of weeks before the parliamentarian ruled. "Well, apparently that's not going to occur because of the rules of the United States Senate," Biden told CBS News last month during a sit-down interview before the Super Bowl. "My guess is it will not be in it."

"You know, it's like a gut punch to millions of people," recalled Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus. "Because he came out so bold on including $15. And then suddenly to preempt made no sense to us."

Khanna likened Biden's interview to a lawyer confiding to a jury that she or he wasn't fully sold on the merits of the case.

Are progressive frustrations enough to sink the larger relief package, Biden's top legislative priority, without the wage boost? Almost certainly not.

"I would vote for it," Khanna conceded. "Because I don't in good conscience can't deny people unemployment insurance. I can't deny schools the money they need to reopen. I can't deny people checks they need to pay rent or make their daily expenses."

Asked whether she'd make the minimum wage an ultimatum for her final support, Jayapal was careful to say her vote would be based on the bill as whole not just that one aspect. "If this package were to get significantly watered down by Senate Democrats, that would be a problem for progressives in the House."

Like most other progressives, Jayapal is stressing the fact she still sees the Biden White House as a good faith ally, albeit an ally she and other progressives will have many tactical disagreements with. "It's been a very good relationship. That doesn't mean we're not going to tussle and tangle at times."

A portrait of Franklin Roosevelt is a centerpiece in President Biden's Oval Office, signaling his promise of an ambitious presidency in a national crisis. Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images hide caption

A portrait of Franklin Roosevelt is a centerpiece in President Biden's Oval Office, signaling his promise of an ambitious presidency in a national crisis.

That overall feeling frustration, but no clear effort to derail what will be one of the largest spending bills in U.S. history is why the White House is so confident the rescue plan will pass the evenly-divided Senate this week and that House will approve the final amended version, too, sending it to Biden's desk by the end of next week.

But the frustration and worry bubbled up so quickly because many progressives see the minimum wage hike as the first of several Democratic priorities that will almost certainly die in a hyper-partisan Senate that's split 50-50, but still operates under rules requiring 60 votes so, support from at least 10 Republicans to break a possible filibuster and pass legislation. (Filibuster rules for administration and judicial nominations have rapidly disappeared over the past decade.)

"There's going to be a whole lot of things coming down the pike," said Shakir, pointing to voting rights legislation, measures aimed at strengthening organized labor and campaign finance reform, among other Democratic priorities. "And you can imagine that those are areas where Republicans are not going to offer the 10 votes to get you past the 60-vote threshold."

More and more Democrats have called for the elimination of the legislative filibuster in recent years.

Biden has only reluctantly and conditionally backed those calls to end the filibuster, and they may be moot anyway. Moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they'd vote against rules changes, making changes all but impossible at a time when Democrats only control the chamber through Harris' tie-breaking vote.

With those existing Senate rules making the type of sweeping changes Biden campaigned on all but impossible in Congress, the tension that bubbled between the White House and progressives this week will almost certainly increase. "We appreciate, we recognize that the Biden administration on many policies has adopted things that Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, progressives have been talking about," said Khanna. "But ultimately the question is, are we going to have a view of structural change that is necessary to make those laws?"

And if progressives aren't quite ready to exert their will on the Biden administration by stalling the president's priorities in Congress, they're making it clear that without big tactical changes like eliminating the legislative filibuster, Biden and the rest of the party might suffer consequences in the midterm elections next year and in 2024.

"Those things are very, very popular across the country in Republican and Democratic districts," said Jayapal, referring to the $15 minimum wage and campaign finance reforms, among other progressive priorities. "And nobody is going to be interested in procedural reasons why we can't deliver."

"If the Senate becomes under Democrats what it was under Mitch McConnell the graveyard where all good things go to die that is going to be a huge problem for us in the midterms," she said. "Both in retaining control of the Senate and retaining control of the House."

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$15 Minimum Wage Fight Tests Biden's Ties To Progressives - NPR

"I know you're all making some small compromises and I want to thank you, thank you for the work you've done," he told a virtual gathering of the caucus. "People are going to remember how we showed up."

For some listening on the other end, the compromises do not feel so small.

Despite a constant open phone line between the White House and progressive members of Congress, liberal dissatisfaction persists with how the Covid-19 bill has advanced. The influence of moderate Democrats in the Senate to make or break the package has left some questioning whether their priorities are being overlooked.

"That is one that people came out to the streets for," said Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California of the wage hike. "That's the one that they voted on. And I think that it would be a colossal political blunder to go into the midterms not having delivered a significant minimum wage increase."

Khanna said he and fellow progressives have had direct conversations with White House officials about the wage issue, which Biden's aides insist he remains supportive of passing outside of the Covid-19 relief package.

"They take our calls, but what does that mean?" Khanna said. "There just does not seem to be a strategy to raise the minimum wage at all."

White House officials say they are still sorting out how to move ahead on the minimum wage after it was stripped from the Covid-19 relief plan for procedural reasons. That could include talks with Republicans on a phased approach, officials said, which is unlikely to satisfy progressives eager for Biden to fulfill his pledge of increasing the wage to $15 per hour.

Asked Thursday whether moderate Democrats were being asked to compromise on the bill, even as progressives see their items stripped, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden had been "unmovable" on the size of the package and its inclusion of $1,400 checks and state and local funding.

"He has been insistent that the scope of the challenge requires this size of a package and in order to address these twin crises that we are facing it needs to have these key components included," she said.

In an apparent attempt to shore up support for the measure within their party, Senate Democrats said Thursday they'd secured a number of provisions for the bill, including money for homeless services, infrastructure, rural health care providers, education, the arts and Amtrak, among other items. It also makes all Covid-19 student debt relief tax free.

Yet after drawing plaudits for his outreach to progressives during the campaign, some members of the movement are now upset that key demands are being stripped from the bill.

Divergent wishes

Focused for now on economic relief, the divergent wishes of progressive and moderate Democrats could become even more plain as legislation looms on infrastructure spending, gun control, immigration, equality issues and voting rights.

The different dynamics at play in the House where Democrats hold a slightly firmer majority and the Senate, where Biden cannot afford to lose a single Democratic vote, have complicated matters. And Biden's own view of his executive authorities -- including, for example, limited scope on student loan forgiveness -- have sometimes put him at odds with his party's liberal wing.

For now, the President's goal is to unify Democrats behind the Covid-19 relief plan to ensure its passage before unemployment benefits expire March 14. He's held phone calls and virtual meetings with Democrats every day this week, including with a group of moderates on Monday and the entire caucus during their lunch on Tuesday. He spoke Wednesday with House Democrats, some of whom have become sharply critical of changes made to the Covid-19 relief bill they passed last month.

"A diverse caucus isn't a divided caucus," he told them, insisting that once the bill is passed Democrats must promote it heavily.

Still, Biden's efforts haven't prevented members of his party from speaking out. On Wednesday, a decision reached by moderate Democrats and signed-off on by Biden to phase out stimulus checks for Americans at higher income levels drew skepticism from progressive Democrats.

"Conservative Dems have fought so the Biden admin sends fewer & less generous relief checks than the Trump admin did," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York tweeted. "It's a move that makes little-to-no political or economic sense, and targets an element of relief that is most tangibly felt by everyday people. An own-goal."

More than anything else, though, the minimum wage fight has highlighted progressives' limited patience. The White House has said Biden wanted the wage increase included in Covid-19 relief but he recognized it was unlikely to pass parliamentary muster because the bill is moving through a process called reconciliation that has strict requirements for what can be included.

White House aides have been less clear on how Biden hopes to see the minimum wage increased going forward.

"He is going to be in conversations, and we will be at a number of levels with members of Congress, with their staffs, about the best vehicle moving forward," Psaki said this week. "But we don't have a clear answer on what that looks like at this point. It remains a commitment and something he will use his political capital to get done."

Progressive agenda

That lack of a strategy and an unwillingness to engage has progressives worried this could be a sign of what is to come.

"This is going to be a harbinger for a whole bunch of other promises that Democrats have made. People are only going to give us a couple of shots to see if we're really going to deliver after they delivered us, the House, the Senate and the White House," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus.

Jayapal, along with other likeminded Democrats, have argued the use of reconciliation -- which limits what can be included in a bill -- to get around filibusters requiring 60 votes to break could be circumvented by eliminating filibusters altogether, another debate pitting moderate Democrats with more liberal members of the party.

The filibuster issue also continues to be a pressure point between the White House and liberal members of Congress, who want Biden to encourage Vice President Kamala Harris, in her Senate tie-breaking role, both to overrule the parliamentarian and strike down the filibuster.

Whether either of those issues made it to a 50-50 vote that Harris would break remains doubtful; moderate Democrats such as Manchin have said quite adamantly they oppose eliminating the filibuster.

Yet progressives remain adamant on the issue, saying the rules have been exploited by Republicans to scuttle issues a majority of Americans voted for.

"The filibuster is something that gives Mitch McConnell a veto. And that has to stop," said Warren. "We watched him use it during the Obama administration and he is already using it now during the Biden administration. We weren't elected to come here and be a debating society, that gives Mitch McConnell a veto on every single piece of legislation that is needed to help American families."

Warren and Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, both called on Harris to ignore or overrule the parliamentarian on the minimum wage.

Harris, who served in the Senate until being elected vice president, has yet to personally weigh in. But Biden has said several times that his administration will respect the rules of the Senate.

That includes honoring the parliamentarian's ruling and keeping the filibuster in place. Sticking by that position likely means that a whole host of Democratic priorities from health care, to immigration to police reform could be held hostage to a 60-vote threshold. Progressives want Biden and Harris to be the ones to encourage Senate Democrats to change the rules of the game.

"Many of us are telling the administration, especially Vice President Harris, that people at home don't really understand how this stuff is done here, and they don't care how it's done as long as it's done," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

But congressional leaders have defended Biden's approach. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea that the White House wasn't doing enough to power through legislation of consequence.

"The White House was right out there with this very early," Pelosi said on their role in the minimum wage fight. "We have no complaints."

Pelosi also rejected the idea that there won't be other opportunities to pass a minimum wage hike. But other progressives aren't so sure.

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Progressives irked by Biden's early deal-making to hold Dems together - CNN

Nearly two dozen House progressives on Monday called on President BidenJoe BidenSenate holds longest vote in history as Democrats scramble to save relief bill Ex-Trump appointee arrested in Capitol riot complains he won't be able to sleep in jail Biden helps broker Senate deal on unemployment benefits MORE and Vice President Harris to overturn the Senate parliamentarians ruling that a $15 minimum wage could not be included in Democrats sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.

Eighty-one million people cast their ballots to elect you on a platform that called for a $15 minimum wage, the progressives wrote in a letter to Biden and Harris that was spearheaded by Rep. Ro KhannaRohit (Ro) KhannaTexas power grid CEO fired in wake of massive storm outages How to create the next 10 great American tech clusters OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Interior reverses Trump policy that it says restricted science | Collins to back Haaland's Interior nomination | Republicans press Biden environment nominee on Obama-era policy MORE (D-Calif.), a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

We urge you to keep that promise and call on the Presiding Officer of the Senate to refute the Senate Parliamentarians advice... and maintain the $15 minimum wage provision in the American Rescue Plan.

Progressives are furious over Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonoughs ruling last week that a provision to hike the federal minimum wage to $15per hour could not be part of the coronavirus stimulus package under the budget reconciliation process.

That process would allow Democrats to push through their massive COVID-19 relief package with a simple majority rather than the usual 60 votes, but the Senates Byrd Rule requires provisions to impact federal spending or revenue.

MacDonough, essentially the Senates chief referee, said the wage hike did not pass that test.

Progressives now want Harris who as vice president serves as president of the Senate to overrule the parliamentarian. Some progressives are going even further, saying MacDonough should be fired over her decision, something Republicans did back in 2001 after they didnt like a ruling of the parliamentarian.

But Biden and top White House officials have said they respect the ruling and are not entertaining either idea.

Over the weekend, the House passed a version of Bidens $1.9 trillion package that included the $15 wage hike.

But based on MacDonoughs ruling, the Senate this week is poised to strip that provision out and send it back to the House. Senate Democrats also have decided to drop their Plan B on the minimum wage, saying a provision authored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron WydenRonald (Ron) Lee WydenSenate Democrats vote to provide 0 unemployment benefits into September Senate holds longest vote in history as Democrats scramble to save relief bill Biden helps broker Senate deal on unemployment benefits MORE (D-Ore.) to tax big corporations that do not pay their workers a higher wage will not be added to the package as it moves through the upper chamber.

But progressives see attaching the wage hike to the COVID-19 package as the best way to get the popular policy signed into law. And they argue that voters handed Democrats the White House, House and Senate last fall in part because of their promises to raise the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 per hour for the past 12 years.

We must act now to prevent tens of millions of hardworking Americans from being underpaid any longer, the progressives wrote. The outdated and complex Byrd rule rooted in restricting progress must not be an impediment to improving peoples lives. You have the authority to deliver a raise for millions of Americans.

In addition to Khanna, the letter was signed by Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila JayapalPramila JayapalProgressives won't oppose bill over limits on stimulus checks Democrats snipe on policy, GOP brawls over Trump House Democrats' ambitious agenda set to run into Senate blockade MORE (D-Wash.); veteran progressives like Reps. Ral Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Barbara LeeBarbara Jean LeePro-Choice Caucus asks Biden to remove abortion fund restrictions from 2022 budget Progressives push White House to overturn wage ruling Lawmakers, Martin Luther King III discuss federal responses to systematic racism MORE (D-Calif.); progressive stars like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezAlexandria Ocasio-CortezProgressives won't oppose bill over limits on stimulus checks Bipartisan bill would ban lawmakers from buying, selling stocks The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - J&J vax rollout today; third woman accuses Cuomo MORE (D-N.Y.), Rashida TlaibRashida Harbi TlaibProgressives push White House to overturn wage ruling Six ways to visualize a divided America Jamaal Bowman's mother dies of COVID-19: 'I share her legacy with all of you' MORE (D-Mich.) and Ilhan OmarIlhan OmarHouse approves George Floyd Justice in Policing Act House Democrats' ambitious agenda set to run into Senate blockade Omar introduces bill to sanction Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi killing MORE (D-Minn.); and first-term Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).

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Progressives push White House to overturn $15 wage ruling | TheHill - The Hill