Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney reintroduced a proposal Wednesday to gradually raise the federal minimum wage, with the caveat that those increases only go to workers legally allowed to work in the United States.
The bill, the Higher Wages for American Workers Act of 2023, is nearly identical to a 2021 proposal from the Republican senator. The only difference is that Romney's latest version would raise the minimum wage to $11 per hour over the next four years, compared to a $10 target in the 2021 bill.
Romney and several Republican colleagues have tied the increases to a mandate that businesses use the E-Verify system to ensure that businesses can't hire undocumented immigrants, and that the wage hikes only go to legal workers. E-Verify is a web-based system that allows employers to confirm the eligibility of employees to work in the U.S.
"Despite rising costs of living, the federal minimum wage has not been increased in more than a decade, which has left millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet," the senator said.
The most recent federal minimum wage increase — which set the current standard of $7.25 per hour — went into effect in 2009. Inflation has increased a cumulative 42% between July 2009 and July 2023, meaning a worker would need to earn $10.29 today to have the same buying power afforded by $7.25 in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Although median wages have also increased over the past 14 years, a 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics report found that 1.1 million workers earned at or below the federal minimum wage in 2021. Twenty states, including Utah, set their current minimum wage at or below the federal level, or have no state minimum wage.
The minimum wage is at its lowest value since 1956, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis from last summer.
President Joe Biden and other Democrats have called for a $15 minimum wage increase, which Romney and other Republicans have opposed on the grounds that it could hurt small employers.
Romney pointed to a Congressional Budget Office report from 2021 that found a $15 minimum wage would result in 1.4 million fewer jobs. The report also found such a wage increase would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty and increase wages for at least 17 million workers.
Democrats have repeatedly called for protections for "Dreamers" — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children — or a pathway to legal citizenship along with any increased enforcement of immigration. More than 100 House Democrats are asking Biden to use executive authority to help immigrants and asylum-seekers get legal work papers, according to The Hill.
Romney and his colleagues — Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Bill Cassidy, R-La., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, are signed on to support the bill — say the immigration provisions in the bill will protect American workers.
"Our proposal would raise wages for millions of workers without risking jobs, and tether the wage to inflation to ensure it keeps up with rising costs," Romney said. "Additionally, requiring employers to use E-Verify would ensure that the wage increase goes to legal workers, which would protect American jobs and eliminate a key driver of illegal immigration."
"American workers today compete against millions of illegal immigrants for too few jobs with wages that are too low — that's unfair," Cotton said. "Ending the black market for illegal labor will open up jobs for Americans. Raising the minimum wage will allow Americans filling those jobs to better support their families. Our bill does both."
Starting in 2024, the bill would raise the minimum wage by 75 cents per year until it reaches $11 in 2028. It also gradually raises the minimum wages for small businesses and young workers. Future wage increases would be indexed based on inflation every two years.
The bill also "provides $100 million annually in automatic funding to ensure E-Verify is immune from a government shutdown," and enhances penalties for employers who hire unauthorized workers or violate I-9 paperwork requirements, according to a fact sheet from Romney's office.
Romney's 2021 proposal never made it to the Senate floor for consideration.
